As I’ve had more time to think about this issue, the more regret I feel for taking part in it, and realize that whether I think New Media Maze responded to me correctly, doesn’t matter.
When the issue first came to my attention, there were plenty of people telling me “not to back down”, and that I “should speak to a lawyer”, etc. I realize now that I got way too caught up in this.
One of my most popular articles on this site, as well as one of the articles that brings in the most search engine visitors, is my How to Install Wordpress with 1and1 Hosting article. I believe the reason for this is because there are many people who’ve run into the same problem trying to get Wordpress to connect to the database on 1and1’s servers. 1and1 doesn’t like to play by the standard rules.
1and1 is not only the most well-known web host, but they’ve also served my website quite well. As my site has grown, not to mention the fact that I now have multiple websites, my needs are changing. This post is not to bash 1and1, because they have provided me with good service. But I believe Hostgator has a set-up that will better meet my needs. Read on to find out why.
Since the changes I recently made to this site(new design, ads, etc.), I’ve decided that the only affiliate ads that I will have on this site, are products that I use myself, and that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to anyone. It’s all too easy to throw ads up based on the amount of the payout, but I’m not going to do this…there are plenty of people who already do.
Here are my current plans. I’m going to keep spots for four 125×125 ads in the sidebar. For now, I’m going to keep two of those as affiliate ads for products that I use and would recommend. The other two spots, I will offer to you.
If you haven’t noticed the last few months, I’ve not posted as much as I used to. The primary reason for this is the fact that I’m rethinking the direction I want to go with this website. When I started this blog, it was just a personal website…nothing more. Then I figured out how to build a Wordpress theme, and that knowledge + the little HTML and CSS know-how that I had, I ran with it. I put together a fairly nice variety of free themes. Then I started writing a few tutorials and taking on work for pay. Most of that work has been me fixing things for people(adding logos, sidebars, fixing errors, etc.), and there has been the occasional custom theme.
Here lately, computers and related components have not been very friendly to me. As I reported earlier, I recently got a new laptop computer. Everything is fine in that regard. Now, I’m having major problems with my DSL connection….and this isn’t the first time. My service is with AT&T(formerly Bellsouth). When it works, it works well. When problems arise, good luck.
It’s strange, I’ve posted here on Antbag.com a lot less over the past two months or so as I’ve picked up more work, but my blog seems to be picking up a little steam. My subscriber count is higher than it’s ever been, my daily unique visitor count is up. I’ve had some much larger days than I’m having right now(days I’ve launched a new WP Theme, with it’s subsequent announcement on Weblog Tools Collection), but not on a consistent basis.
Another neat thing, due to backlinks from my WP Themes, is that I’ve been listed this week in Technoratti’s Top 100 popular blogs at #99. I seriously would have expected this to bring in a rush of traffic, but truth is, it hasn’t. According to my stats, I’ve not had even one referrel this week from Technoratti….strange.
As for being in the Top 100, I know there are quite a few designers out there who have WAY more back-links than me, but are not listed in the Top 100 popular blogs. My assumption is that once they figure out the reason I have all those back-links(Wordpress Themes), I’ll be off the list. Anyway, kinda nice to see my blog listed.
