The Lady Programmer

I suddenly remembered my new good-looking online friend, Jaypee. I was busy these past few days because I had some outsourcing job to do.  As I had announced in my previous post entry, Jaypee provided me the hosting space for this blog. He also made it easier for me to learn WordPress by sharing what he already knows about this stuff.

He had been a lot of help and yet he was still inviting me to his Christmas Giveaway contest – well this is my first time ever to join a blog contest, really!

Although the contest had been announced last November, I was able to blog about it this very last day. As I’ve said, I got knocked off from the net, then I had to catch up on everyone. Just recently, I had accepted an outsourcing job that would make up for the lost money-making opportunity when I was offline.

I am particularly interested in any of the prizes that are offered – really. I’m falling in love with self-hosted WordPress and all the power that comes with it. Sadly, Jaypee doesn’t want to give all the prizes for one person. Well, I still hope luck smiles on me on this New Year.

• 3 Revolution Two Pro Plus Memberships (each worth $149.95) – courtesy of Brian Gardner
• 2 Mimbo Pro Single-License Copies (each worth $89.99) – courtesy of Darren Hoyt
• 2 FlexxTheme Single-Use Copies (each worth $79.95) – courtesy of Cory Miller
• 1 WP-Member Plugin Ten-Site License (worth $67.87) – courtesy of WP-Member.com
• 3 WP-Member Plugin Five-Site Licenses (each worth $44.78) – courtesy of WP-Member.com
• 5 WP-Member Plugin Single-Site Licenses (each worth $27.13) – courtesy of WP-Member.com
• 2 Elegant Themes Membership Licenses (each worth $19.95) – courtesy of Nick Roach

As I am writing this, I am three hours  hours from the contest deadline which is December 30, 2008 midnight US Pacific time. If you happen to read this post, have a self-Wordpress blog and want a chance to upgrade to a new look this New Year, then hurry up (like me) and join this one!

Let’s not also forget the sponsors of this wonderful contest:

1. Revolution Two WordPress Themes
2. Pro Theme Design
3. iThemes Premium WordPress Themes
4. WP Member – Advanced WordPress Membership Plugin
5. Elegant Themes – Premium WordPress Themes

Hey guys! I’m back, and with a bang. I hope you notice the new look of this site, but that is not the only thing that you’ll see here. The Lady Programmer is now on self-hosted WordPress!

new look on a new home

A good thing to have this Christmas, and just in time for me to realize that I have just turned to be a one-year old blogger!

I was so so very very happy to be given this push by Jaypee, a interesting Plurker behind the blog JaypeeOnline. He offered me the chance to move from Blogger platform to WordPress. As I prepared my blog weeks before, he had helped me with some things that he already know about setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog.

I did the header and took a fitting theme and made more changes. I have also decided to change my Entrecard widget while I modified the theme extensively. I still have some few loose ends left, but I think this blog is now ready.

I hope you like the new look!

You’ve probably noticed that there is no obvious change in this blog’s template. A few days after I had published the announcement that I am going for my own template design, an angel was suddenly sent down from heaven to help me grow my blog. I would not be putting much detail on what this sudden change is all about. For now, I’m sorry to disappoint everyone, but chances are, I’ll still be using a free template. However, the change is much different – and more exciting – than sporting a new look.

I promise.

Oh, I still hope everybody is still checking me out. I have not visited you guys for a while. I do blogging as a part time work right now so I don’t get to update all my blogs and I find myself running out of time to promote my stuff. But I will find another effective way to make up for the lost time.

I miss you guys.

UPDATE: Hoops! Almost forgot, thanks to Pastilan for emailing me a copy of SEO Optimization.

I’ve previously mentioned about my quest to learn SEO skills which is a growing demand in freelance jobs. Even before I put out that post, there are a number of people who had been asking me through email or through blog comments on any previous post that instructs them on how to do SEO. I am not really an expert on this one, and I’ve realized that SEO skills takes time – it can even take years to understand this stuff.

I keep a number of blogs that I follow all along to learn such skill. Here are some SEO sites that I keep in my Google reader:

• Tech At Hand Dot Net 
• Macuha.com
• Money and SEO
• Search Engine Guide 
• SEO Fast Start 
• The Ad Master

I only know Marghil Macuha through reading his Macuha.com blog regularly. It was from his site where I found the eBook in understanding SEO the easiest way. His blog deals more his SEO explorations though.

Dexter of Tech At Hand Dot Net is a blog that I visit regularly. This guy too, has his own SEO explorations. I find his posts useful in learning SEO. You might want to check out his SEO category – I’ve been digging through that archive a day ago and find his posts very helpful.

Engr. Cesar Noel was very helpful guy who is into this stuff for several years. He had been very helpful in giving me leads on where I could get the good SEO resources to start with.

All the remaining blogs are also worth reading. Check them out too.

Like Dexter had mentioned, on the previous post on freelance SEO skills, forums are a good way of learning SEO. Here are some good ones:

• DigitalPoint forums 
• SEO Chat forums
• Webmasterworld
• and even our own SEO Philippines Forum

Engr. Cesar Noel was also kind in mentioning SEO Guy forums. He also reminded me that the best SEO practice is producing good content.

I have been tweaking out this blog’s layout over the weekend. Finding a new combination of widgets was not an easy task: it took me more than a day to accomplish. Finally I got a layout that I am happy to have – at this time.

Read More About Me

Since I got a very early post about myself, I thought that I might as well place that link below my profile. I’ve also added a contact me page for those who need to get in touch with me through email.

Easy Entrecard Drops

Entrecard visitors are a different bunch. They usually skim information and make their drop. I made that widget accessible right below my profile.

Freelance Stuff

These are featured posts that I plan to change from time to time. These posts are the one’s that I have written well but did not make it through the top lists.

What’s Hot and What’s New

Image credit to jonner

What’s Hot is a list of my most commented posts. What’s New is a list of my newest posts. Take a pick.

Purely oDesk or Paypal

I’ve created One-Stop oDesk Corner to accommodate oDesk and Paypal visitors to these information. I have written a lot of posts about oDesk, Payoneer and Paypal but these information get buried under the dozens of posts that I have written. Now the link should be easier for oDesk visitors to get to the posts.

Paypal is a very common payment method. The write-ups should also help these visitors well.

Other Minds

This is simply a blogroll that lists down blogs with the most recent posts. This is a great opportunity for link lovers to get their blogs listed. I maintain two blogrolls, a page containing links where blogs are categorized, and a blogroll list at the right side. If you often update your blogs, then this is a good way to get featured.

I decided to have one blogroll to maintain. It is the list of links along the right sidebar of this blog.

Lessened Number of Posts

From seven posts per page I decided to reduce it to only three posts to facilitate loading time. I believe this move made by blog load significantly faster.

My Own Template

I am still interested in coming up with my own template – the one that I can truly call my own. Right now I’m contented with the change in widgets.

Do you like the new layout?

The main reason why I changed the layout is for every group of visitor to easily access information that they need. I got oDesk visitors, blog visitors and search engine visitors too, so I need to cater to those groups. I still have some loose ends to finish but I think the major changes are helpful enough to most visitors of this site.

Do you have something to say?