Ravi’s Rants

1. Create a file called phpinfo.php




2. Enter these few lines of code in it: (you can copy-paste from below):
   
   <?php
phpinfo();
?>




3. Upload this to your root folder (where your home page (index.htm or index.html etc) lives.




4. Access this script via the browser like this:
   
   http://www.YourSite.com/phpinfo.php




5. You should see a nice page come up, with the PHP logo and headers, that shows all of your PHP configuration and settings. If you see it, then: Hurrah, you can run PHP on your site!




6. If you see some kind of errors, first try changing the file’s permissions (chmod) to 755. (CHMOD Tutorial)




7. If that still doesn’t work, then you’re probably SOL (S#!t Outta Luck). Confirm it with your web host.




8. If your web host doesn’t support PHP, don’t waste your time - or your web site - with your current host. Just switch to where I host my own sites.




9. WARNING: Don’t forget to delete the phpinfo.php file from your web site. Hackers can figure out a lot of stuff from this page!

I recently asked a very close non-blogger, never-blogged-before friend to start his own blog on my new multi-blog site, YehHaiIndia.com (driven by WordPress Mu - very cool software).

His immediate response was:

The problem with blogging is you need ideas and thoughts you want to write.

And you are assuming I have thoughts that are worth writing about….

The biggest problem with publishing a blog, is not that you may not have enough or something worthy to say.

The biggest problem is actually “fear”.

“I can’t believe he wrote something that stupid!”
“What the heck was she thinking when she wrote that?”
“He has no idea what he is talking about!”

Fear of criticism. Fear of being judged.

We don’t want to put our thoughts and opinions “out there” for everyone to judge; and for some to call us “a moron”, “clueless”, “totally wrong”.

Whereas blogging is like thumbing your nose at this fear.

You put yourself out there in every post. Every thought and comment and opinion in your blog is yours - and yours alone. You are setting yourself up for criticism and judgment and name-calling. And you want people to read your posts, criticize you, judge you, interact with your blog and give you feedback.

As long as we fear this feedback, we simply cannot do remarkable things.

No, it doesn’t mean you ignore common sense and do something stupid (like putting crazy photos of you on your blog while somehow involving your employer).

It means that if your post makes sense, and all you fear is being judged by your colleagues, friends or family - and fear about what others might say, then I say, just get over it, thumb your nose at your fear, and get ‘er done.

The whole idea of podcasting is not to be just able to publish your audio files online, but to make your audio posts “subscribable” - i.e., your listeners should be able to set up their podcasting software (like iTunes) to subscribe to your feed, in which case the software (in this example, iTunes) will automatically download your newest posts to their hard disk, as soon (or soon after) you make your posts live.

Which means, when they next sync up their mp3 player (say, iPod), your newest audio posts will automatically be synced from your subscriber’s hard disk to their iPod.

That’s the real “subscription” model of podcasting.

So how to make your WordPress feed refer to your podcast? Simple:

1. Create your audio file (mp3, mp4, etc)
2. Upload it to your server (into a folder in your main directory, say “podcasts”)
3. Your post can have your usual text content, but make sure your post has a link to the actual audio file. Note: It has to be the full path.

   Wrong: <a href=”yourfile.mp3“>My podcast</a>
Right: <a href=”http://Example.com/podcasts/aug2007-vol1.mp3“>My podcast

4. WordPress automatically links your feed to your audio file, such that if someone were to view your blog posts in a feed reader, and clicked on the link for your audio post, then they won’t be led to your blog, but the audio file will start playing instead.
5. Once your listeners “subscribe” to your feed, their podcasting software automatically downloads new files (posts with your audio file in it) to their hard disk automatically.

WordPress is not perfect - not just yet. But there really isn’t any software out there that can do all it does: well written, open-source, extensible, has lots of plugins, and has a great community around it - like WordPress.

So, just make peace with the “comparison war” (which is better: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc), simply download WordPress (or sign up for a free blog online), and get going with your content.

Content is what makes money - not your blog software.

You know what is Blog-And-Ping. Blog-And-Bookmark is quite similar.

You first blog about something (hopefully) interesting, then once your blog’s ping service has done its work on the back-end pinging all of the various web sites and your post is live, then you go to work as follows.

Use a one-to-many social bookmarking tool like AddMe.com or Socializer. I use AddMe on my blog itself, but use Socializer when I am actively bookmarking my own posts. Also check out the one-form-many-bookmarks site OnlyWire.com.

Add a bookmark to your post at all leading sites starting with StumbleUpon.com, Digg.com, Reddit.com and Netscape.com. You should do it manually for these sites, and use OnlyWire.com for automated submission to the rest of the sites.

I highlight StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and Netscape here, because those are the ones that send about 95% of the social bookmarking traffic that my blog gets. The rest of them add up to only about 5%, but pursuing them is still worth it due to the number of back-links (incoming links) you will get.

See the Feedburner statistics (screenshot) below for RavisRants.com.

Note the spike in traffic every time I do blog-and-bookmark myself. It not only brings in a fresh supply of visitors, but also increases my number of average subscribers (Feedburner only reports that number for one given day, as the number can vary from day to day). This is not only a great way to get first time visitors, but also to get some new feed subscribers.

So, don’t forget to blog-and-ping, tag-and-ping, and blog-and-bookmark every single time you post.

I was getting about 500+ spam-comments a day. I’m now down to about 20. Based on my personal experience with spam, I have created a list of “bad words”, which, when used as a blacklist, will make most of your spam go away.

If you’re using Wordpress, copy the list below and paste it into the “Options > Discussion > Comment Blacklist” box.

Now WordPress warns:

“This is a list of words that you want completely blacklisted from your blog. Be very careful what you add here, because if a comment matches something here it will be completely nuked and there will be no notification. Remember that partial words can match, so if there is any chance something here might match it would be better to put it in the moderation box above.”

So, go through the list and weed out any words that you think might be acceptable for your blog. So here goes…

Note: This list will be updated as often as I find new words to blacklist. So bookmark this post (see “bookmark” and “subscribe” links in the menu to your right) and check back occasionally.

4free
4u
accutane
actos
acyclovir
adderall
adipex
allegra
Alprazolam
altace
ambien
Amoxicillin
amoxil
amphetamine
anal
anime
antibiotic
arousal
atfreeforum.com
ativan
attorney
augmentin
Azithromycin
babe
baccarat
bdsm
benadryl
biaxin
bitch
blackjack
blowjob
bondage
boob
booty
bowflex
bulabital
bupropion
butalbital
camry
car
carisoprodol
cartier
casino
celebrex
celexa
chick
cialis
cipro
citalopram
claritin
clonazepam
cock
codeine
codine
Crestor
crotch
cruise
cruises
cum
cunt
cyclen
cyclobenzaprine
cymbalta
dada
diazepam
dick
didrex
diovan
directbookmarks.info
dodge
doxycycline
drugstores
edvttj
Effexor
elavil
ephedra
ephedrine
erotica
escort
estate
facial
famvir
finland
Fioricet
forex
freewebs
fuck
gambling
gay
glucophage
gucci
helsinki
hentai
holdem
honda
hoodia
horny
hummer
hydrochlorothiazide
hydrocodone
incest
indianapolis
jaguar
jewelry
Lamictal
lasix
lesbian
lesbians
levaquin
levitra
Lexapro
lexus
lipitor
loan
lopressor
lorazepam
masterbating
mazda
medication
meridia
metalica
mevacor
Minolche
myfreedir.info
mysex
necklace
Nexium
Nicotine
nissan
norvasc
nude
orgasm
orgy
Oxycodone
Oxycontin
p0tassium
panties
panty
paxil
penis
percocet
pharmacy
phentermine
phpbb
plavix
poker
porn
Potassium
pravachol
prednisone
prevacid
prilosec
propecia
Protonix
prozac
pussy
rape
refinance
ringtones
ritalin
rolex
roulette
seroquel
sex
shemale
silveno
slot
soma
sphost
swinger
tadalafil
tadalis
tawnee
teen
testosterone
tetracycline
tissot
tit
toon
toyota
Tramadol
Trazodone
twinks
ultracet
ultram
valerian
Valium
viagra
Vicodin
vioxx
Wellbutrin
wholesale
Xanax
xenical
xxx
zanaflex
Zenegra
zithromax
zocor
Zoloft
zolus
zovirax
Zyprexa

Last updated on…:
2007: 3/30, 3/31, 4/2, 4/3, 4/20, 7/17