Blogging

Plug your site Sunday

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PlugDo you have a website you’d like to plug?  Post a link and a little description about your site. 

No porn sites please.

 I’d prefer if you link to sites that are yours.  I’d rather you not link to sites that you just like.  We’ll do a post about your favorite sites in the near future.

 Please note:  If your comment doesn’t go up right away, it’s being held in moderation.  (That happens if the filtering software thinks it might be a spam or if you’re a first time commenter.)  I’ll approve it as soon as I can.

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Changing web hosts?

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My web hosting renewal is up next week and I’m trying to decide if I’m going to stick with GoDaddy.com or try another host.  I’m concerned about downtime if I do change.  I don’t know how long it takes and if the site will go down during the transition.   

I don’t want to make a switch and end up worse off than I am now.  Any recommendations would be appreciated. 

My requirements in order of preference are:

  • Reliability
  • Minimal down time
  • Minimal slow periods (I seem to experience this now)
  • Able to handle spikes in usage on occasion without shutting me down
  • Competitively priced
  • Ease of use
    • Consumer friendly interaction with server  (not an expert so this is important to me)
    • Linux OS and PHP and WordPress friendly

    Who do you use? 

    • How long have you been with them?
    • How do they handle issues like spikes in traffic?
    • Are you happy with them?

    Anything else you’d care to share about your host would be appreciated.

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    Last year’s stats

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    Last year was a good year for both Bits and Pieces and Bits of Wisdom. 

    For the whole year of 2009:

    Bits & Pieces:
    BandP stats

    The top post on B&P last year was Sometimes when I’m sad…  It had 138,222 hits.  Second was Yo, dude that stole my lunch…  That post had 111,001 hits.  And the third most popular post was Man jumps off bridge to save dog. It had 73,997 hits.  The Wal-Mart Bingo post came in fourth at 62,475 hits.

    Bits of Wisdom:
    Bow stats

    Considering Bits of Wisdom debuted in August of 2009 I think it did remarkably well.  The biggest hit on BOW was the Perception post which was linked to on SumbleUpon and brought in over 82,000 hits in one day.  It also cause my ISP to shut me down for half a day.

    The second most popular post was We are all connected.  Third most popular post was What is your philosophy on life… in one sentence?

    More than 12 million hits (pageviews) in one year!  That’s pretty amazing.  Again, this wouldn’t be possible without your participation.  I thank you very much.  It will be interesting to see what 2010 brings.

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    Technical difficulties

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    TechnicaldifficultiesOnce again, we’ve experienced technical difficulties.  My ISP, the fine folks at GoDaddy.com disabled the database (website to you and me) without any warning other than an email telling me they did,  because it was “over–utilizing the shared resources, thus affecting other customers.”

    The cryptic messages they send you are all but worthless to me and a phone call to tech support isn’t a lot of help either.  I was told to Google “query caching” as that was where the problem apparently is or was (hopefully was). 

    I did Google “query caching” as directed and found that I probably should be using a “caching plugin” especially since I’m on a shared server.  So I dowloaded Super Cache which seems to be the recommended solution.  I installed the plugin and hopefully that will take care of that problem.  I now need to let then know that I ‘fixed the problem’ and they’ll check it again.  If all is well, then I fixed it.  If B&P disappears again then that didn’t fix the problem

    Time will tell.  (Crossing my fingers here)

     Update:  The nerd-gods at my ISP have informed me that the plugin fixed the problem… until another one pops up I guess.

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    Where B&P readers are from

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    BP Readers2About a week ago I asked you readers of B&P to post in a comment where you were from.  That post received 372 comments and they’re still coming in – a few a day.  Just a couple people didn’t follow the instructions given. But everyone else did.  The results were amazing. 

    You are from all over the world.  38 different states plus the District of Columbia here in the United States were represented along with people from 49 countries around the world.  I know there are thousands more who didn’t post a comment about their location.  Most of them have never commented, but they’re regular readers.

    Here’s a breakdown of those who responded:   —->

    I’m in awe of the global reach that Bits & Pieces has attained.  I find it incredibly amazing as I sit here in St. Louis Missouri and post things that I come across that I find funny or just interesting to me and that there are so many of you out there that are just as warped as I am.  🙂

    I know sometimes I miss the mark or I see something differently than you do, but still there must be plenty that you do enjoy that you keep coming back. I appreciate that.

    At this holiday season I am thankful for your support.  I especially enjoyed meeting a few of you in person and hope to meet more of you next year.  (I really am planning the Big Ass BBQ for next summer.) 
    What a great global neighborhood we’ve created here!  It couldn’t have happened without you!  Thank you very much.

    I’m also appreciative of my fellow bloggers, from whom I borrow content for the posts here.  It couldn’t happen without them either.  Thank you – Thank you!

    I hope you all have a joyous and safe holiday!

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    B&P gets TV coverage in Beaumont Texas area

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    Mike McNeill, the anchor and Executive Producer of KEBT’s FOX 4 Good Day in  Beaumont Texas writes:

    Just wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU!  Since finding your site, my job of producing the clip of the week has become MUCH easier!
     
    If you are ever down Texas way, be sure to give me a call!  We would love to have you on the show.
     
    We talked about you this AM.. take a look:
     
    WOW!  I’m getting sort of famous.  Maybe I need an agent.
     
    Thanks Mike!
     
    Update:  I had the TV station wrong.  Corrected.  It’s KEBT in Beaumont TX. 
     
     
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    Meeting you – Meeting me

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    Sonya Jeff JonI had the pleasure of meeting Jeff and Sonya this evening.  They are a very nice couple who are B&P fans (Sonya a little more than Jeff.. OK a lot more).  We met at Sharkey’s on the Pier in the beautiful little town of Venice Florida about 25 miles up the coast from Port Charlotte. 

    Sonya has been a long time reader and ocassional commenter (WifeMotherMe) of B&P and says it’s the first site she visits every morning.  They were very personable and easy to talk to.  Jeff grew up in Florida but Sonya has only been here for 9 years after living in Tennessee.  She is a lovely southern belle with the cutest little Tennessee accent.  We had a great meal and good conversation for about two and a half hours.  Thanks you guys!  It was a pleasure to meet you.

    Sharkeys
    Sharkey’s from the pier.

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    Comment notifier problem solved

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    … I think it’s solved anyway….

    If you’ve been slammed by email from B&P it’s because a little check-box in the comment area was checked by default so you’d get an email whenever someone added a comment to that particular post.  I believe I have corrected the problem.  I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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    B&P hits 15 million pageviews

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    Probably at about 4 pm today Bits and Pieces hit it’s 15 millionth page view.  This is the new B&P that I started at the end of January 2008.  So in about 22 months we’ve had 15 million pageviews.

    15 mil
    These stats are as of 5:20 pm today Central Standard time.

    Bits of Wisdom is doing quite well too, thanks mainly to one post that got a record 82,000+ hits on one day. It’s dropped off from that massive number to a very respectable 19,000 daily average. Not bad since it started in August of this year.

    The old Bits and Pieces still gets about 1,500 hits a day on average and I haven’t updated it in 22 months.

    Thanks to each and everyone of you for all your interest!

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