The other day I was busy recording a couple WordPress video tutorials while my 3-year old son, Joshua, sat quietly next to me watching me work.

When I was done he really wanted to sit up to the microphone and do a recording, so I figured, “Why not?”

In the beginning of most my videos I introduce myself as “John from WP Blog Host”, so naturally, that’s where he started.

Hope you all have a great Holiday season.

Related posts:

1. Want To Dive Into Video Blogging? Here’s Where To Start
2. Introducing The New WP Blog Host Television Channel: wpbloghost.tv
3. How To Upgrade WordPress Manually Video

I don’t complain much nor do I rant about many things. In fact, I think this is my first rant in two years of blogging.

During my 3 week or so break from blogging, one of my tasks was to get my wife’s beaded jewelry store up and running. It’s an e-commerce store powered by Magento Commerce. Magento is a CMS program kind of like WordPress. Its rivals are osCommerce and ZenCart (ones you may have heard of).

Now I know WordPress inside and out, but Magento is a new beast I have yet to conquer.

So the first thing I did was browse online for a suitable template just like I’d do for WordPress. I found one I liked on a site called HelloThemes.com and purchased it for $99. A couple things persuaded me to purchase a theme from them.

1. Their site seemed friendly
2. They seemed to know a lot about Magento
3. I liked their themes
4. And there seemed to be a ton of support for their themes

They even appear to have an online chat support just in case you run into any issues.

Problem is, as you can see in the image to the right and above, their chat is Offline . . . all the time! I’ve visited their site numerous times at all hours and their chat support is ALWAYS offline. Always.

Why even bother putting that on the site then?

I’ll tell you why. It’s so people like me and you feel safe with this company. They want us to feel reassured and comfortable buying from them. And it worked because I spent $99 with them.

I ran into all sorts of issues with the theme I purchased, most notably that it comes in three color choices but no matter what I tried, only the default color would show. I attempted to contact HelloThemes numerous times through email (contact us), their blog, and hoping one day their online chat would be, online.

The template I downloaded also came with a “how to install your theme” tutorial. At the bottom, here’s the last thing you will see: Hope this helps! If you still have any questions and concerns please don’t hesitate to contact us at support[at]hellothemes.com.

Yeah . . . I tried 3 or 4 times. What kind of response did I get?

I received nothing but silence. Not one email. Not one response. Nothing.

This is nothing but poor customer service and a lack of respect for those who actually spent money with your company. HelloThemes is probably just a couple of people who got together to try and make some money online all the while having little care really about you and me. It’s more about just a way for them to make money now.

Obviously, this is no way to run a business. If you sell products or provide a service, you need to provide some kind of support. Even if you are unable to help the person, at the very least respond to emails. Otherwise, you might find you piss off the wrong people (like a blogger who knows how to write seo blog articles). It’s just nonsense to never communicate with your customers.

If you sell a product or service, it’s best to provide some kind of support. Even if you don’t really support it and all sales are final, you need to communicate with those who are keeping food in your mouth.

Ok, my rant is over. I could seriously go on and on, but I’m pretty sure at this point most of you read the first part of this rant and then skimmed the rest

Related posts:

1. My Rant On Someone Else’s Rant About Bloggers
2. Gas Prices and Product Costs vs. Service Costs

I’m sorry about that. Truth is I’ve been bogged down with a lot of work lately. My wife has an e-commerce site where she makes and sells jewelry. Can you guess who the webmaster is for her site?

Also, part of what makes WP Blog Host so much more of a web host for bloggers than other hosts is the fact WP Blog Host has a resident WordPress blogger on staff here to assist their blogging customers. I bet you can guess who that person is, too.

It can be a lot of work at times, but I’m very pleased to see some of our customers realizing the importance of locking down their WordPress installation and adding a blanket of security to it. In my personal opinion, that is money very well spent. About 2 weeks ago, one of our blog security customers sent me this email (I removed his blog address for privacy):

“Look what someone tried. Fortunately, my user name isn’t admin, my table prefix isn’t wp, and I have WordPress Firewall! 2/3 of those things are your doing–thanks!”

WordPress Firewall has detected and blocked a potential attack!
Web Page: customer-blog.com/blog/index.php?cat=%2527+UNION+SELECT+……(666,CHAR…,user_pass,…..,
666,CHAR(58))+FROM+9xek3pd_users+…..(goes on from here)

Warning: URL may contain dangerous content!
Offending IP: 200.106.145.82 [ Get IP location ]

Offending Parameter: cat=%2527+UNION+SELECT+……(666,CHAR…,user_pass,…..,
666,CHAR(58))+FROM+9xek3pd_users+…..(goes on from here)

This may be a “SQL Injection Attack.”

The …. and (goes on from here) are parts of the string I edited out. I see no need to teach mischievous jerks code which could crack a WordPress blog.

Since we’re on the topic of WordPress security, I’d like to showcase a new blog I’ve been enjoying reading lately. It’s called Perishable Press and is authored by Jeff Starr. He has an excellent post where he gives us a nice set of .htaccess rules we can paste directly into our root .htaccess file which will block hack attempts like the one above.

Back to where I’ve been. My issue has been time management. The funny thing is Barbara just wrote a post which seemed to speak directly at me. It’s about doing everything in life you need to do all the while still having the need to maintain a blog. If you’re new at blogging, time management will most definitely be an issue.

Fortunately, Alex Fayle chimed in down in the comment section and left a link to an article he wrote about time management.

I think his method is a sound method and I’ve already put it into action. So we’ll see how it goes.

So where’s John going to be today?

Teaching my son how to ride a bike!

Now it’s your turn. Has everyday life and work schedules been tugging at your arm and keeping you away from your blog?

No related posts.

How many times has this rung true for you? Whoever first spoke those words was a wise person.

About a week ago a close friend went on Craiglist.org, Las Vegas looking for a rental home. They quickly became excited when they ran across a home advertised for rent in an excellent part of town for a monthly rent price $300 – $400 less a month than similar homes.

They quickly replied to the post and soon after they received a reply from the supposed owner of the house in a message that looked like this:

Good hearing from you am Dr Eric Neville,the Leaders of (WHO) world health organisation appointed by the World Health Assembly on 9 November 2006..

We own the House and also want you to know that it was due to our transfer that makes me and my family to leave the property and was post on craigslist.com to give it out for rent. We are looking for a reputable person that can take very good care of it, as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.

We are a Multi-Million Organisation authorized by the UNICEF AND UNITED NATION HEALTH GROUPS. Our work is to travel around the world, we supply food, drugs, and shelter to the poor,our organisation is known worldwide due to our good work and faith. we want to know if you also have love for the sick and poor around the world.We are in conjuction with Susan Collins the Senator of United state of America.

So right now we are in West Africa. with the keys and the document of the House. We try to look for an agent that we can give the keys and documents before we left but could not see any trusted and responsible agent and the only person that we trust was dead last year on plane crash,so we have nobody that can give the keys and documents before we left and we are as well don’t want our house to be used anyhow in our absent that is why we took it along with us. You can drive by to view it from outside at 11761 Via Vera Cruz Ct Las Vegas, NV 89138.

So get back to us on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home.please let us know If you are staying for a long period of time, We are okay with one month deposit payment of ($1,250) including the security deposit,looking forward to hear from you.Our rental form has been attached to you that you will have to fill to qualify for this rent.

Looking forward to hear from you with all the application details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.

Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how the keys and documents would be ship to you via Fedex company.

Thanks Remain Bless

Dr Eric Neville
Cell
+234-80xx-xxx-xxx
Office
+234-xxx-xxxx

If you read all that you probably noticed numerous grammatical and spelling errors for someone supposedly from Las Vegas, NV USA.

However, my friend realized that for many people English is a second language and as I’m sure you’ve experienced yourself, not everyone is so great at writing coherent emails. They emailed back and forth with this supposed Dr. Eric Neville ignoring all the red flags popping up, such as not being able to walk inside the house because the keys would have to be FedEx to them and the whole strange “We’re in West Africa” thing.

Their problem was they got too emotional. They let the “possibility” and “dream” cloud their logical judgment.

The final red flag was when my friend mentioned they were a little nervous because of all the scams out there and also when this scam artist mentioned how the first month’s rent would be paid (and then the keys would be sent).

. . . ok,i can understand your feelings and i want you to believe that no negative things that would happen to you concerning this ret i know that there are alot of scam that goes around the internet and i want you to have faith and believe in God . . .

. . . right now you can not view the inside cause the keys and document to the house are all with me here, i also want to call to your notice that i will have to send the keys and the documents to the house to you via Fedex delivery to your residential address, and you will be making the payment via Money Gram Swift money transfer system . . .

This is the part where you hear a spinning record screech to a halt.

Wisely, my friend finally realized that he was too emotionally attached to this house to make a logical decision and asked both my family and me for advice.

Of course none of this looked good to us so we did two things. First we did a little research and then had my friend send some security questions to this guy (like what is the gate code, has the house ever been rented before, do you own any other properties in Las Vegas, etc.) and second, we looked up his name on the Internet.

We didn’t find anything bad on his name, however, we did find the real ad for this house from the real Eric Neville on Rentals.com for a higher monthly charge and luckily, Eric’s phone number.

My friend called the number and left a message. Meanwhile, the fake Eric emailed back answers to my friend’s security questions and you guessed it – he answered them wrong. Shortly after the real Eric Neville called back and confirmed some guy in Nigeria, West Africa has been posting on Craigslist trying to collect up front rent money using his good name.

The Lesson About Emotions

In business, emotions can make or break you.

When Emotions Are Good

When you’re passionate about your product and/or service people see it and feed off that energy. Your strong emotions and confidence in your service builds excitement and confidence in your customers.

That’s when being emotionally attached to your business and product can be good.

When Emotions Are Bad

The problem with emotions is they can severely cloud your rational judgment. If you’re too close to your product or too close to that home you want to buy, the right hemisphere of your brain (the creative and emotional side) will kick and scream to get what it wants. The constant battle between the logical left hemisphere and illogical emotional hemisphere of the brain work overtime when you find something you want really bad.

When To Use Your Emotional Side In Business

When building your business, product line, or finding investment properties in real estate, try to know when it’s a good time to listen to your emotional side. The times you might want to listen would be when you’re trying to sell your product or investment property. Because then you’re hoping that customer is listening to their emotional “buying” side and can feed off your emotional selling.

When To Use Your Logical Side In Business

The best time to rely on your brain’s logical left hemisphere is to flip the idea I just mentioned above.

Use your logical side when you’re buying or evaluating a product or service. This will help you evaluate profits and losses and base your decision on a sound judgment.

If you’re like me, though, that’s all easier said than done – especially when it comes to buying your personal residence.

Related posts:

1. The Art of Persuasion (Part 2 of 3): Knowledge, Timing, Listening

Uh . . . yeah, whatever.

I am a believer that part of being successful is having a positive attitude, but to create successful outcomes and win in business, you need to do more.

I know times are rough these days not only for entrepreneurs, but for nearly everyone. Gas prices are still hurting businesses, people are afraid of spending too much, credit companies have tightened their lending rules; heck – even here in Las Vegas where there are a number of huge hotels and casinos, jobs are hard to come by.

If you’re a small business owner and struggling to make ends meet, you probably see two options ahead of you: close up shop or try to weather the storm. Of course, times will get better. They always do.

But what do you do while money is tight?

First, don’t get too discouraged. Trust me, I’ve been there DONE that. I’ve been on a good roller coaster ride during my 33 years of life. I’ve made money, lost money, traveled a lot, scraped by just to put food on the table, invested and profited in real estate, lost money in real estate, battled a little depression until I met my wife whose made me a happy man . . . you get the point.

So keep your chin up. It’s just the way life is.

Second is figuring out if you should close up shop or not.

If the passion isn’t there, you might consider liquidating your business or if it doesn’t own many assets, simply close up shop and move on. If, however, you want to keep your business alive, you need to make some hard choices.

I have always preached that we should try to live below our means and not within them (see my article Budgeting 101: A Smart Plan That Keeps You Safe & Allows For Wealth Building). This is very important not only for generating wealth, but just to get by. Don’t over spend what you got, and while you’re at it, don’t spend everything you got as well (i.e. don’t live above or within your means, live below them).

Millionaire Mommy Next Door has some great brainstorms on what you could do to help you get by during times like these.

Also, use this time while things are slow to build your product and brand. Why not? You got time, right? If you own a business and find you don’t have a huge Thanksgiving Platter (as my friend Barbara put it) of work on your to-do list, you’re missing something. I’ve never owned a business and didn’t have a to-do list. Never.

If your business is small enough, consider finding a second job while times are slow, if you can find one that is. Preferably, find one in your business’ trade so you can learn more and make new contacts.

Use this time too, to read books and expand your knowledge in areas of business you’re not strong in.

Maybe part of your problem is you’re lazy. Consider finding a partner who might know a little more than you and push you to keep up.

My point is this.

Times are tough. Staying positive is great, but don’t stop there. Work toward something. Use this slow economic time constructively. If you’re like me, staying busy is what keeps you motivated and away from the gloom of depression.

If your business is slow, how are you utilizing your time? Are you staying positive and are you working toward something? Are you working toward that perfect day?

Related posts:

1. 3 Sentences on Entrepreneurial Learning Curve
2. Budgeting 101: A Smart Plan That Keeps You Safe & Allows For Wealth Building

Today in America we have a problem.

Gas prices are out of control, inflation is killing middle-America, and our housing market has fallen drastically. As a result, many businesses and individuals are forced to file bankruptcy and allow their homes fall into foreclosure.

For those of you with tarnished credit reports because of today’s economy, I want to tell you there is hope in the near future.

You see, today banks are going through rough times themselves and in order to survive past the next couple of years they will have no choice but to work with a large number of businesses and individuals with poor credit reports.

What I believe we will see over the next 2 to 3 years are new loan options and programs available for those with bankruptcies and foreclosures on their credit because of what’s happening today.

Not that I promote bankruptcy or allowing your house to fall into foreclosure, but if there was ever a time to do it, now would be the time as lenders will have no choice but to work with a high number of businesses and individuals with low credit scores in the coming years.

These programs won’t be around forever, though. Just long enough to deal with the masses of people who have filed bankruptcy or have a foreclosure on their credit as a result of today’s economy.

Now one day I’ll see a report on the news telling us how new loan options are becoming available to accommodate for the large number of people and businesses with low credit scores and think to myself – I said it first on my blog. I knew it! But I didn’t have the audience NBC News has to be credited as the first to report on this.

I say this because a week after I wrote my article, Gas Prices and Product Costs vs. Service Costs, NBC Nightly News did a report which basically said exactly what I wrote in my post. Good thing I don’t blog for fame .

Related posts:

1. How I Obtained A $30,000 Credit Line With A Bad Credit Score
2. Gas Prices and Product Costs vs. Service Costs
3. How To Buy A House Like A Real Estate Investor: Part 3 – More On Dealing With Down Payments

1. Live above your means.
2. Live within your means.
3. Live below your means.

Breakdown of #1

Spend all the money I’ve got; spend a lot of money I don’t got and worry about it later.

Breakdown of #2

Spend all the money I’ve got; don’t spend any money I don’t got.

Breakdown of #3

Spend some of the money I’ve got; don’t spend any money I don’t got; invest and save the rest for the future.

If you answered #3 you win a gold star! If you said, “Number 3 is best but I’m really a 2 or 2 and a half,” then you get a silver star for knowing which is best.

If you answered #1 is how I live and I see nothing wrong with it, what do you think my answer would be?

I subscribe to number three’s logic, however, I’m probably more like a 2 and a half.

Which logic do you subscribe to?

Related posts:

1. Allowing Readers To Subscribe To Your WordPress Post Without Commenting
2. Subscribe to the WP Blog Host Blog
3. Budgeting 101: A Smart Plan That Keeps You Safe & Allows For Wealth Building

Who are you?

I may not have as many blog subscribers as Darren Rowse or Brian Clark, but I’ve managed to capture your attention for at least a moment and I’m curious who you are.

James, Catherine, and Barbara are perfect examples of online acquaintances I’ve made through the use of blogging – and I’ve learned a lot from each of them and I’d like to learn from you too.

What’s your name? Where do you come from? Do you have a blog, website, business? How did you find WP Blog Host? What do you like about my blog? Which subjects do you like most I write about?

The nice thing about blogging is you can find and talk to just about anyone anywhere in the world and learn something from their experiences.

You don’t have to speak up if you don’t want, but feel free to comment, it only takes a few moments. Tell us about you. Tell us what you think of the direction we’re taking in the web hosting industry here at WP Blog Host.

So, who are you and where can I find you online?

No related posts.

Enter your email address in the subscribe box to the left and in the sidebar. If you’re still worried about giving out your email address, click on the red RSS icon on the right or just below. This basically will create a bookmark of my blog and show you its topics – no email address required.

Related posts:

1. Allowing Readers To Subscribe To Your WordPress Post Without Commenting
2. Which Philosophy Do You Subscribe To?
3. Create Yourself A Shortcut – How To E-Mail, Blog, and Text On The Go!