With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

After more than 2 years since launch day, 2 years with ups and downs, higher or lower publishing frequency, Blogsessive proudly reaches a new milestone: 1 million page views.

I don’t know if for others this is impressive or not, but I am thrilled and happy to be part of the nice community that formed around this blog and its blogsessed brand. I’m thrilled to be here and provide you folks with quality information and resources and I’m thrilled to let you know that such an event calls for a celebration.

And how better for a blogger to celebrate such a milestone than by giving back to the community for all he himself has received. Not more than a few days back I’ve released the Twitter Tweet button WordPress plugin and now it’s time for a new free WordPress release.

Introducing Typominima

Typominima is a free typography based, gorgeous, minimal WordPress theme. Head over to the Typominima release announcement post for more information, download link and let the writers in you express themselves in a beautiful environment!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

December 26 is here, which means today I am going to announce the two winners of the Xmas ReTweet Contest.

Each of the winners will have the possibility of choosing one of the Premium WordPress Themes available in the WordPress category at ThemeForest as their prize.

Complete list of participants

Below you’ll find the complete list of participants (39) that had valid contest entries (followed both steps in order to enter the competition):

1. Bloghita - @bloghita
2. Marius. - @Marius__
3. Radu Panciuc - @panciuc
4. Eugen - @pauneugen
5. Nikolaevi4 - @Nikolaevi14
6. JeremyOLED - @JeremyOLED
7. Aldo - @iFeelanceWeb
8. Kimberly Castleberry - @KimJCastleberry
9. AlexT - @alext_1020
10. Razvan Girmacea - @RazvanGirmacea
11. Cristian VADUVA - @Vaduva
12. Youwei - @Youwei
13. Calítoe.:. - @Calitoe
14. Daniel - @danielpeisar
15. Anand Srinivasan - @knewthis
16. Margaret Ayad - @eracose
17. Nice from Thailand - @SE7ENize
18. Jennifer - @grizzarkhov
19. Dimitry Ekzarkhov - @design_deity
20. Tracy - @mattnem05
21. Dhaunae @Dhaunae
22. Jessica Dooley - @jessicadooley
23. Jason - @jasontromm
24. elmot - @elmot
25. Kat - @simplywp
26. Codrut @ Blog Post Ideas - @CodrutTurcanu
27. Damir - @wisehat79
28. Melvin - @melvinblog
29. Prasanth Chandra - @pcsbox
30. Jacob Yap - @jacobyap
31. Raju - @rajupp
32. naz - @aenaz
33. Suhas - @suhastech
34. Siddanth
35. Slipdisc - @Roadrippersid
36. technbohowl - @technohowl
37. Rich - @fireitup4USA
38. Michael Cannon - @SMARTcutGeek
39. Kushal Chen - @slayershanks

Contest winners

Here are the lucky winners:

2. Marius. – @Marius__ and
23. Jason – @jasontromm

The 2 winners have been selected using the random number generator available at Random.org. See screenshots below for the winner drawing process:

Xmas Contest – Setting up the draw

Xmas Contest – Draw Results

Claiming your prize

Marius & Jason, I will contact you both via the email addresses you have used to place your comments (contest entries) and we’ll set up the prize selection and delivery. Congratulations!

I would also want to thank everyone else who participated in this fun Christmas contest. The number of entries has surpassed my expectations. If it were possible, I’d gladly give a prize to each and every one of you. But fear not, there will be more contests, so stay tuned to Blogsessive through the blog or my twitter account: @Blogsessive

Happy Holidays!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

How long has it been since I’ve held the last contest on Blogsessive? Too long, but since holidays are close, lets have some fun and make two of you folks the owners of a brand new premium WordPress theme from ThemeForest. It is a simple contest and everyone owning a Twitter account is invited to join in!

Xmas Contest Prizes

Two of the contest participants will each win a premium WordPress theme of their choice from ThemeForest. Contest prize selection is restricted to the WordPress category on the previous mentioned website.

The two winners will be randomly picked by me on the day of December 26th. Read the rules below.

Xmas Contest Rules

Do you own a Twitter account? If so, there are two things you need to do in order to enter this contest:

First you will have to retweet an exact copy of the following:

Win a Premium #WordPress theme in @Blogsessive’s Xmas Retweet Contest! http://bit.ly/XmasRT Click to enter!

Second, after you’ve retweeted the above message, come back here and post a link to the Twitter status containing the retweet in this post’s comments section.

Important:

Entries are valid ONLY if both steps have been followed exactly. Participants are allowed one entry per Twitter account!

Xmas Contest Results

The contest results will be made publicly available on December 26th. I will contact the winners via the email addresses they will use to leave comments on this post, so make sure you comment with a real valid email address in order to claim your prize.

Good luck to you all and let the fun begin!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...

As promised a while back, I’ve finished editing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF eBook format. So, today I give you the chapters you’ve had the chance to read online plus a whole new chapter (8. Technical aspects) and some bonus tips to guide you in your corporate blogging adventures!

How to download the eBook?

In order to download the ebook, all you have to do is to subscribe for free to Blogsessive’s RSS feed (if you haven’t done so until now) and you’ll find the download link at the end of each article in the feed.

eBook preview and contents

Here are two screenshots of the book’s cover and the contents page:

Don’t forget to subscribe…

… to Blogsessive’s RSS feed to download the eBook and to stay updated. There are plenty more freebies in the works, including a new WordPress theme and my second eBook: “From Zero to Blogging Hero: 100 Blogging Tips”

Enjoy the eBook friends!

PS: Please do not link to the download link in the feed. Instead, if you wish to promote this ebook, link to this post. Otherwise, I will consider it spam and wrongful usage!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Have you read "How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" yet?

Hello folks, how’s everybody? The last week I’ve been working hard on a couple of projects, mostly related to Blogsessive. December is here and the New Year is just around the corner. I’m asking for your patience while I sort these “issues” out with a target in mind: The winter holidays should bring a couple of surpises on Blogsessive. I’ve been working really hard and trying to solve all things in parallel (both client work and work for Blogsessive), but it takes a little more than expected.

Fact is, I sure don’t want to get into the new year without giving you the gifts I’m preparing, so stay close cause this is what I’m getting ready to accomplish by the end of this week:

• The latest free WordPress theme (business CMS style): Corporate WP – Final stages
• Complete redesign of Blogsessive.com – In progress
• Switching servers – New server has been acquired and it is setup as we speak. I’ll move to the new server as soon as the new design is in place.
• Publishing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF format (Free) with an added chapter.

Thanks for your patience and I cannot wait to finish these jobs and to share views with you on them!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Looking for really affordable premium WordPress themes?

A few days back I was reading this interesting post on BloggingTips.com on how to plug an eBook on your blog and I instantly remembered all those ugly looking eBook sales/landing pages that you STILL find all over the Internet, like we’re still way back in ’98.

Do you have a good product to sell on your blog? Then why not give it a real chance. Why tell your visitors straight from the sales page that they are either stupid (“Please X, let me buy your book for only $29.99!) or that your have no idea how to make a unique presentation for a unique item!

Yes, I’m sure that almost every internet marketer will tell you how those ugly pages are effective, and how their “call to action” phrases and messages are really effective. Allow me to disagree! I hate them. You hate them. We run away the second we land on them!

A sale is not make by the number of colors and fonts you use on your landing page. It’s not made by the number of screen scrolls a user has to make in order to get to the part where the “call to action” makes him feel small and stupid compared to you, the big internet marketing guru!

A sale is made based on the quality of your products and ease of the (guided) buying process!

How can ClickTale help?

I discovered this tool (ClickTale) while working with one of my studio‘s customers and i was impressed by how easy it is to use it and how much useful information it provides:

• Record and watch actual user browsing sessions (real-time);
• Link analytics;
• User behavior: click heatmaps, scrolling heatmaps;
• Form analytics;
• and more…

Here’s a quick presentation of the tool:

So, there you go. A good user tracking tool that will give you enough insight on your visitor’s behavior and will help you discover which are your sales/landing page weak spots. And the best part? There’s also an option of signing up for a FREE account (of course with limited capabilities).

Also, if you’re looking to go pro with this tool, the guys over at ClickTale have a damn good offer of 20% off for a 6-month plan and 40% off for the annual subscription.

Go, take a look at ClickTale, test it out and say NO to those ugly looking sales pages!

This post does NOT contain affiliate links and it’s NOT a sponsored post.
It’s a post about a tool which I believe will help you improve your online sales!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...

A new wave of phishing attempts makes its way through the direct messages (DM) system on Twitter.

You might receive a DM from one of the people you follow that could look like this:

Username: haha, that u on here? http://videos.ds*****w.com/

Clicking the link will take you to a page that for the untrained eye looks exactly like the Twitter login page. DO NOT enter your username & password. It’s not a Twitter API or anything. You’d just be giving away your authentication data.

Also, don’t be quick to judge the one sending you the DM as a spammer and report him/her. He might only be the victim of one such attack.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

I say FRIEND, in bold and caps, because if you’re reading this, that is what you are to me. Friends are there for you, for better or worse, and considering the events that lead to such a huge gap in article publishing in Blogsessive, you the ones that are still accessing the blog and are still subscribed to its RSS are definitely good friends.

To write about everything that happened in the past 2 to 3 months would take me at least twice the amount of time. Changes and events in every single aspect of my life, most of them for the worse. All these events kept me away from you, from the blog, from being in contact with the faithful readers.

I’ve been also struggling with the idea of selling the blog in order to allow it to survive and evolve while I took care of my personal life. I couldn’t. For the past year and a half this blog has been my home, the home where I’ve welcomed each and everyone of you. The home where all of you have been fantastic guests. I couldn’t give it up.

Instead, with the risk of falling back a few steps, I’ve decided to focus my whole energy in getting through this period only to find out that GOOD THINGS HAPPEN to those who wait, those who have faith and patience.

So, here I am, once again before you, thanking you for being here (which is one way of manifesting your support, even though none knew it was needed)!

Good things happen and will happen once more on Blogsessive. There will be a change in this blogs perspective. It will open up more to the community, and that’s why, for the “come back article” I have prepared a very useful post from the talented blogger Anand Srinivasan who will be sharing with us some of his tips on managing and prioritizing the management of a larger blog or website portfolio.

Also, among the new posts I’ve been preparing, the release of new, free WordPress theme is imminent. For now, a quick preview of this theme, called Corporate WP

See you all back tomorrow!

Alex

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Looking for really affordable premium WordPress themes?

In the months past I’ve received a lot of messages, comments and emails, each asking something about Simple Balance. To some I have answered, to others I couldn’t, due to various reasons (mostly time).

Please understand that the simple fact that I released this theme for free is a “support” action itself, and most times, my daily activities do not allow me to help everybody in their quest to customize this theme the way they want to. That would mean to cut time from my clients’ projects to offer support for this free theme. I am sure that you can understand this situation.

That’s why, for a limited period of time, I’ll check out this post daily and try to answer any question you might have, be it design or source code related, as long as it is about Simple Balance. If you have previously asked the same thing on another topic, or sent a mail and did not get an answer, please ask again here so that I can answer your questions.

So… fire away!

PS: Some questions could already be answered in these posts:

• Simple Balance – Right Sidebar Alignment Bug Fix
• How to Add Your Logo to Simple Balance
• FeedBurner Email Subscription in Simple Balance 2.0

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...

Let me start off by saying that I’m not easily impressed by the huge number of “premium WordPress themes” out there. Sure, some of them are really good looking, but in terms of customization, most lack that something that would make me say: “OK, this one I can easily adjust to my needs!”

It seems that almost every premium theme out there focuses to much on delivering a top-notch design, that would make it hard to non design-savvy people to tweak to their own liking. This is where the new Thesis 1.5 theme makes a huge difference.

Options galore

With the huge amount of work I have to deal with daily, designing one of my non-profit blogs would take too much time that I could invest in client work or in Blogsessive. So, I’ve decided to give Thesis a spin for this future blog and I instantly fell in love with the options panel.

Those of you that have tested my Simple Balance theme know that I have a thing for easy layout customization and enough options to cover basically every need people might have.

Well, for the $87 personal license or $164 developer license, Thesis takes this customization to a whole new realm with:

• SEO settings;
• Layout settings: number of columns, position of columns, width of columns;
• Layout styles: Classic blog layout, magazine style layout;
• Typography settings: You can easily adjust the fonts used by almost every important element on your blog;
• Expert, clean written HTML, CSS, PHP code;
• And many more amazingly useful options.

Check out this 12 minute video by its creator – Chris Pearson – and see for yourself what awaits you inside the administration panel.

Working the magic

It’s no wonder that famous bloggers chose Thesis for their main or side projects. Here are some samples of what can be achieved with Thesis:

• Brian Clark’s Copyblogger
• Darren Rowse’s TwitTip
• Chris Brogan’s blog
• and one of my favorites, Blogussion’s recent Thesis redesign by Alex Fraiser.

I for one can’t wait to find that bit of free time to setup Thesis on my side blog. I feel like a kid getting a brand new shiny toy!

So, if you need a really premium WordPress theme that is guaranteed to do the job, you’d better get Thesis version 1.5. Worth every penny!

Disclaimer:This is not a sponsored post. The above post contains affiliate links. I would never use affiliate links or recommend products or services that I do not believe in, so rest assured that the above is my true opinion about Thesis.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

Hello friends! This is one of those posts that keeps you updated with my activity (and prevents people to think that Blogsessive is gone). Again, it was a busy period of time, but one that has produced something that I’ve been waiting for while to happen: me and my associate, Adrian, have launched the website of our design studio: QBKL Media.

Between writing on Blogsessive and working on client projects I’ve hardly found the time to get the website together, but now it happened and I’m really happy. We went for a simple, minimal, one-page website that focuses on what we want to share with those that access it: Who we are, what we do and how to get in touch. It has already been featured on CSS Mania and Abduzeedo’s “Sites of the week #49″, and this makes me even happier.

Now, all that remains is to push hard to get the alpha version of DNPicker.com up and running. DNPicker is side project meant to take the place of the old “Domain names for bloggers” series on Blogsessive. Things have progressed well in the last week and if you wish to stay updated with what’s going on, follow DNPicker on Twitter. As soon as the alpha version will be ready, I will make available a few alpha-testing account that will be reserved only to those following DNPicker on Twitter to help the conversation, feature suggestion and bug reporting process.

This latest activity has influenced the posting flow on Blogsessive, but unfortunately, once in a while I have to make time for other projects too. Rest assured that Blogsessive lives on.

Thanks for being here!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

Oh yeah! I’ve been waiting for the new version to come out ever since the first announcement back in January. Now, BuySellAds is finally out of the private beta with such a huge list of new features that just made my life as an ads publisher a whole lot easier!

The new search filters for ad space buyers is much easier to use and definitely more precise. Ad publishers now have more control over their ad spaces and the statistics are definitely the best improvement here, giving publishers (and buyers) information on the number of impressions, estimated CPM, traffic ranking, number of clicks (publisher only).

Also, cashouts have been automated and you can now use you BSA funds to purchase advertising on other BSA member websites. There are a whole lot more new features available, and the new design is also really good and well structured.

I’ve been using BSA for Blogsessive’s Ad Zones and I was happy with it. Now I’m more than happy. The new BuySellAds website really rocks!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...

Let me start of by asking you one thing: have you ever doubted the power of social media? The U.S. president, Barack Obama stands proof of its power and now the Revolution in Moldova too.

After the recent election which are said to be manipulated by the communist party, Moldavian teen and teenagers started today that will probably go down in history as the first European revolution covered by live blogging and twittering.

Police, army, students, students that speak my language, as Moldova was once part of my country, Romania. Smoke, fire, fights, gun shots. These are the images that are spread via YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and personal blogs.

In an attempt to stop these images to go live, Moldavian authorities have restricted internet access, have taken down websites and have shut down private TV stations and news sites. But even so, the revolution is still transmitted live.

It’s enough to check out these hashtags on Twitter and you’ll see how fast the information is pouring in: #pman, #moldova, #chisinau.

Photo copyright by UniMedia. More on Flickr.

So, my question to you: Do you still doubt the power of social media? Do you still believe that Twitter is only a tool to exchange links with your friends? Think again! These kids didn’t!

Used in the right context, and for the right reasons, social media is the most powerful tool a common person can get.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Have you read "How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" yet?

Hey friends, as you might have noticed, yesterday I’ve released the 1.2 version of the Latest Posts by Category WP Plugin. As the time was short and the update was needed, I decided to leave the localization of the plugin for the next update.

As I’m typing this, the plugin is set to English as default, and I’ve already created the Romanian translation file.

How can you help?

If you’re proficient in any other languages than English and Romanian – like Spanish, French, German – and you’re willing to give me a helping hand in translating 19 short phrases, contact me via email. Tell me which language are you willing to help with and I’ll send you a text file with the required translations.

Not to be picky, but native speakers would be preferred, as each language has its own little tricks.

Each translator will receive a link to his/her website on the plugin download page and in the info files in the download package.

Already in the works: Croatian, German, Spanish, French, Bulgarian.

Thank you!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!

Today I’ve done a couple of updates to the blog which include:

• Updated to WP 2.7.1 after adjusting a couple of scripts;
• Added links for “Subscribe to the comment feed” and “Jump to comment form” above the comment list;
• Separated comments from trackbacks to make it easier to follow the conversation;
• Added gravatar support and display to comments.

I would love to hear what you think about the changes and also if you have other suggestions as well.

In anticipation of a possible question, the “Respond to comment” feature has not been implemented because with the current theme, I believe that it will break the clean/clear flow of comments. Maybe at a later time.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!

Over the past few days many of us have seen a significant drop in our RSS subscriber count in our FeedBurner account.

The FeedBurner help group – if we can call it that way, as no one ever seems to answer – is filled with messages from users who have “lost” even thousands of subscribers overnight. What’s the answer these users get? The silent treatment. And it’s not the first time users report these drops and get no answer.

OK, we’ve seen a pattern in these drops and it involves the Google Reader subscribers. With Google Reader being probably the most popular feed subscription tool worldwide, there’s no wonder that the drop percentage ranges from 30% to 70% in some cases.

So, just for the sake of remaining optimistic about this situation, let’s presume that Google is working on a way to better integrate these two services (FeedBurner and Reader) to provide better statistics to us users.

Even so, this does not explain the lack of updates on the FeedReader Status blog or the lack on a 2 line message on the help board that would definitely calm down the spirits. And as the case is not singular, and the lack of communication seems to turn into a habit, I cannot help but thinking that ever since Google took over FeedBurner, the relationship between the project team and the users has gone from good, to bad, to worse.

A change of attitude is required in this age of instant communication, otherwise even if Google is running the service, competition will eat it up. “All this has happened before, and will happen again” as they used to say on my favorite TV show, Battlestar Galactica.

Update: After 3 or 4 days of madness on the boards, a Google team member addressed a short message confirming that the issue is related to Google’s Feedfetcher and has been reported to the responsible department. It took a while…

Update 2: An acknowledgement of the issue is finally made official on the FeedBurner blog. 3 to 4 days after users started to ask questions about it.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!

Those of you interested in website rankings and SEO, you’d better check out your sites’ PageRanks. As we speak, a new update is in progress (one that has been rumored about). Over the past few hours I’ve seen pagerank updates on most of the websites I’m working on, going up, and back dow, and up again. Let’s see how and when it will stabilize.

And also, Alexa.com has just updated not only their design, but most probably their ranking system too.

New Alexa Design and Ranking System

One day ago, Blogsessive was still ranking around 70,000, and now the rank has been updated to 49,130.

Could it be the pressure of Compete and Quantcast breathing down Alexa’s neck? Who know. What’s important is that they seem to be taking steps toward perfecting their ranking system and updating their online image. And that’s good as it was about time to do it.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!

With ups and downs, with periods of abundance of content and publishing breaks too, but most important, with many new friends each day, this March, Blogsessive has stepped into its second year of existence.

It so happened that March was also the busiest month we’ve had with QBKL Media‘s projects, launching two projects and getting ready for 2 more and our own website. This frenzy was reflected in the publishing rhythm on Blogsessive. But, as I’ve always said either in interviews or here, I hate sacrificing the writing quality if my time does not allow me to dedicate myself as much as I feel fit.

Still, you have remained loyal to the this blog, waiting for new content to make its way to you through your feed readers. Friends, I can assure you the time is well worth it, and to prove it I’ll take you on a quick trip thought what’s coming from Blogsessive in the next few weeks.

One Year Celebration Contest

An event like this cannot pass uncelebrated. At the beginning of April I’ll launch a new contest to reward those of you who are loyal to this blog. As you’ve seen in my previous contests, I love to reward those who contribute valuable content to the blogosphere, and so, it will again be a group writing project. With this contest, one winner will get a nice “blogging package” which will consist in:

• 3 years pre-registered .com or .net domain name of choice
• 1 year of free WordPress hosting
• 1 premium WordPress theme
• 1 eBook on blogging

More details about the prizes and the sponsors of this contest will be made available in the announcement post.

2 eBooks in the Making

One of them it’s a book I’ve been “secretly” working on for the past months, and until it will be ready to release, I’ll not uncover too much information about it. Enough to say that it will take you through anything you need to know about blogging.

The other one is based on a training/presentation I held at a recent PR Forum in Romania, on corporate blogging and I’ve decided to adapt it and to make it publicly available. It is almost ready and most probably at the beginning of the next week you’ll be able to download it. You can preview the cover in the image on the right.

One new WordPress theme

When I decided to release the Simple Balance WordPress theme, all I had in mind was to give people the opportunity of testing out for free features that at the time where available almost exclusively with premium themes. Was it worth giving it away for free? 100% yes! The reactions, the talk, the support, you’ve made it what it is by embracing it on your blogs and I thank you for that.

But the time has come to move on to something new. While I will still answer questions about Simple Balance to those looking for guidance, I’ll do so only when time allows it. At this time, I have two new WordPress themes in the works, and based on the progress and how they turn out, one of them will be made publicly available and continue to provide the quality that Simple Balance had behind.

I will keep you posted on this as soon as things start shaping up.

The Domain Names Project

One of the most successful series on Blogsessive was “Domain Names for Bloggers”. To be true, it has been much more successful than I had anticipated, with a rate of registration of the suggested name of over 50%. Considering the fact that those of you who come to Blogsessive are not really looking for domain names but rather for blogging and WordPress tips, I think that a 50% rate its pretty amazing.

So, I’ve decided to turn this little series into a side-project. The website is in the making in QBKL Media’s kitchen as we speak and will be launched sometime this April on DNPicker.com. What will this website do? Just like the series, will publish worth-registering domain names. Not for their money value, but rather for their development potential, all in a user-friendly environment, giving you the possibility of checking the domains availability, recommend it to other users or save it in you favorite names list for later registration. We’re already testing most of the website areas and we’re pleased with the results so far and really hope that you will be too.

And also…

New content. I’ve been so busy with all these side-projects and the studio that only now I realize how much I miss writing new blog posts as ideas start to gather. I miss getting it touch with you through the comments, exchanging opinions, ideas and links.

With this post, I would also love to thank all of the advertisers that bought advertising space on this blog during this year, and by doing so, contributed to the existence of Blogsessive. Thank you!

So, stick around for the second year of Blogsessive and we’ll all have a blast!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!

By now, you should know that I’m a WordPress fan. While most people regard it as a simple blogging platform, some see beyond that and realize that WordPress is a very capable CMS.

While working with it as a website CMS will not allow too many customizations for entry-level developers or users, in the hands of a pro WordPress is ready to perform miracles.

The advantages of WordPress powered websites

There are quite a bunch of advantages when developing websites using WordPress as CMS, but the most important are:

• Productivity – A lot less time spent on development, which guarantees a lower cost and still high quality;
• Ease of use – Both client-side and developer-side. The amount of tutorials, plugins and support groups available out there is a divine gift;
• Updates – The WordPress community is very involved in keeping the project up to date and bug free and the updates are so easy to apply.

It’s enough to run a search on Google and you’ll see how many people praise the power of WordPress but instead of using words, this time I’ll use results.

The real deal

If in the past weeks you’ve seen less activity on Blogsessive is mostly because my design studio, QBKL Media has been working on delivering top notch quality for one of its clients that chose WordPress as the platform for their website redesign.

The client is one of Romania’s oldest post-revolutionary hotel – Caro Hotel – and today we’re pleased to announce the official launch of their website.

So, instead of going on and on about the power of WordPress, I invite you to see for yourself what can be achieved. And believe me that this is only a small part of the real deal!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

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This is not the average blog post on Blogsessive and it’s not going to become a habit approaching such matters. Ramblings are not what I love doing. This is merely a way to express my concerns about online discrimination. My thoughts about certain things that many people take for granted while other wish they could do or have.

Ever since I started in the online business I had to face certain fears and concerns that the international public had about eastern european people, people coming from the ex-soviet block. More specific, we Romanians have been seen in every movie or TV news as orphans, beggars, gypsies and fortune tellers. Believe me, that stamp is quite hard to fight sometimes.

When the internet era came along, we had to fight one more prejudice: the Romanian hacker. It would be hypocritical of me not to admit that we had (have) our share of “hackers” and lowlifes trying to scheme other honest people in the online environment. But are we all hackers? Are we all gypsies? Beggars? Orphans? NO!

Is every Arab a terrorist? Is every black man a drug dealing gang-banger? Some people can’t help thinking that they could be.

That’s prejudiced. And prejudice leads to mass discrimination.

You might wonder where did this blog post came from? What does it have to do with Blogsessive?

In just about a couple of weeks, Blogsessive is going celebrate its one year anniversary and I with it, along with you all. And since SitePoint have such an amazing offer, I’ve decided two take the offer for 2 reasons:

1. 100% of the sales go to the Victorian Bushfire Assistance Fund;
2. I wanted to offer the books as gifts here with the 1 year anniversary.

But wait a second. I cannot buy them. I’m from Romania. My credit card smells of hacking intentions and my PayPal account uses fake virtual money. My question to you dear folks is: If PayPal trusted us to do business, isn’t it discriminatory to think otherwise?

I know the answer. Freedom of choice. You choose to do business with whomever you want. Still, that doesn’t help me feeling a bit frustrated, feeling helpless being considered a thief without ever being charged of anything. Can’t help feeling sad for putting the best I can here on Blogsessive and never asking for anything in return and being denied the right to buy a PDF book.

And their service is not the only one with this kind of country based judgment. There are hundreds more services that we would love to join, use, contribute to, but we can’t.

Yes! We Romanians have hackers among us. Germans have them too. British, French, Indian, Chinese Americans, they all have them. But you choose your battles carefully.

Well my friends, the battles should not be carried with a nation, any nation for that matter. The battles should be carrier with your own security systems and the security of the services you use.

Bad will and skills to do bad things can be found in any place of the globe, and if your service or the services you used are not prepared for “Romanian hackers”, why would they be against anyone else?

Meanwhile, I can deal without that PDF book, and I’m still proud of being Romanian for at least one thousand reasons from past history to present. And I’m still thankful that this blog gave me the chance to meet so many wonderful people from allover the world – YOU!

My apologies to those looking for another “blog tips” post. The one that should have went public is still in the drafts, almost finished, as I really needed to take this of my chest, hoping that you the one who reads this will see things a little bit more different from now on.

Stay safe, helpful, open-minded and blog on!

PS: If you have any thoughts on the topic of discrimination – any kind of it – would love to read them in the comments section or in a blog post on your own blog.

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