As a security measure, I’ve added something called reCAPTCHA. You might already be familiar with this. If you’ve ever filled out a form on the internet (like signing up for allhutterites) you’ve had to use it. You’re given an image with letters and you have to type those letters into the box your given. Sometimes it’s pretty hard to read but there’s a reason for that – it’s so a computer program can’t “read” the letters and hack into the system.
On your blog, whenever someone wants to post a comment, they’ll have to fill in the reCAPTCHA form:
This feature will be added and activated automatically whenever someone creates a new blog.
Recently I discovered something on the internet. Usually something like this would interest me, but I’d never try it because it would seem fake. However, I read about it on a website I trust (http://www.charitysplace.com/swagbucks.htm) so it wasn’t long before I’d signup up and was making some big “bucks”.
Swagbucks is a great program if you’re on the internet a lot and what to get some prizes for the searching you problem do anyways. Of course, there are more ways than just by searching to earn the points (called “bucks”). I’ll outline them below, along with a few helpful hints if you’re interested. I would be much obliged if you’d sign up as a referral under me. That means I get points whenever you search and win. Just click on the image below to sign up.
How you can earn “bucks”:
1. Search using the Swagbucks search engine.
2. Install the Swagbucks toolbar. You can search with it, plus it provides easy access to certain links like the Swagbucks blog or Facebook page. You also get 1 point per day for using it.
3. Codes. The codes can be anywhere – on the blog, on their Facebook page or even on an item page. Following Swagbucks on Facebook will keep you up-to-date on all this. While fans aren’t allowed to post the actually code, they can give hints of where to find it. You’ll notice right away that there’s a code available because everyone will be thanking TSG (The Swag Guy). If you can get the swidget (see it below), that helps too because you can see if there’s a code available. But hurry! Codes are only available for a limited time.
4. Referrals. Like I mentioned about, when you sign up using my link, whatever points you earn from searching, I’ll get too – up to 1000, that is.
5. Special Offers – The No Obligations Offers. If you click on Special Offers – View Our No Obligations Offers and Win Swagbucks, you can go through the offers and win 1 point per day.
6. Special Offers – Other. On the special offers pages you’ll see a whole variety of other offers. Some are free, others you have to buy something to earn the points. Sometimes there are even “tasks” you can complete to earn points. While a lot of these things take time – up to a half hour if it’s a survey or task – it’s a quick and fairly easy way to earn points.
7. Daily Poll. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Just vote (once a day) and earn 1 point doing so.
8. Trusted Surveys – This is the most recent addition to the site. You can get points for completing surveys. You’re guaranteed points for completing the profile surveys, but the rest you have to “qualify” for. It’s not easy, but it’s a load of points if you do! Just remember: always be truthful with your answers.
8. There are other ways to earn points, as you’ll see from browsing the Swagbucks site. The above methods are those I use most often.
What you can do with your “bucks”:
I’ve been using Swagbucks since the beginning of April 2010 and by present day (July 2010) I’ve earned enough points to get myself 8 $5 Amazon gift cards. That’s $40 in just 3 months! There are a lot of other prizes too, but the $5 Amazon gift cards suit my purposes and they only cost 450 “bucks”. There’s also a reason that I say $5 gift cards rather than the $25 or $50 gift cards. You’d think that the higher the value the less points it would take to get the card….or at least the same amount. So if it takes 450 points to get a $5 gift card, it should take 4500 points to get $50, right? Not so. The $50 Amazon gift card is 5900 points. So odd. Which means you get more if you take $5 gift cards.
Warnings:
As with any prize-winning site, there have to be precautions in place to keep things fair. The Swagbucks site has a list of what not to do, but here are some things I’ve figured out for myself.
1. Keep your searching to a minimum. Over searching too many times will actually put up a warning flag with the Swag People and you might get your account suspended. Besides – it doesn’t work anyways (see the tips list below).
2. Only one person per household can sign up. I emailed them about this and they told me that “household” means an address. A bit of a pain for us Hutterites since we have many households under the same address, but nevertheless, it’s something you have to watch out for. You can however ask friends and family to use your account on their computers to help out, but again, searching more often doesn’t help you win more points.
Tips:
1. Don’t oversearch. You’ll only be able to win once in the morning, afternoon and evening so it’s pointless to try more.
2. You won’t always win on your first search and first page. Go through all the pages or try searching a second time. If that doesn’t work. Stop and come back in an hour or two.
3. Use Swagbucks as your normal search engine. If you can’t find what you’re looking for you can always switch back to Google.
4. Get referrals! It helps if you have someone else on your account that racks up points too, because everytime they win (only from searching, though) you win too. And that’s good up to 1000 points.
5. Last but not least, if you use Facebook, or have a blog or space, promote yourself. You can use the promote banners or the swidget. The swidget is a handy little tool that you can use to search, see how many points you have (it’s the quickest update of your points amount) and the best part – you can see if there’s a code out.
Have you wondering what that “icon” was called that most websites have?
It’s called a Favicon and it’s one of the handiest things a website can have. As you can see in the image above, I don’t need words to tell me what websites I have bookmarked on my Bookmarks Toolbar. It saves a lot of space if you show just the favicon and delete the text description. If you’re like me and you have tons of websites that you visit regularly, this is a great feature.
You can create and use your own favicon on allhutterites Blogs. It’s a special type of file called an icon file (.ico). If you aren’t familiar with how to do this yourself, email me the picture you want to use and I’ll create the file for you. There are a lot of favicons available on the internet. Websites like Very Icon and IconsPedia let you search for the icon you want and download it as a ready-made icon file.
The Shockingly Simple Favicon plugin allows you to upload your own favicon. Once you have your icon file, follow these directions:
1. Upload your icon file: Dashboard – Media – Add New – Select Files.
2. Allow it to finish uploading or “crunching”. Click on Show if the options box is not already open.
3. Copy the file URL.
4. Go to the Shockingly Simple Favicon plugin settings: Dashboard – Settings – S. Simple Favicon.
5. Paste the file URL into Favicon URL. Click on Save Changes. Your blog should show your favicon within a few minutes.
Transferring your blog from Blogger/Blogspot to WordPress is fairly easy.
Please note – only posts and comments will be transferred, not settings, widgets, layout options, or themes. These will have to be configured afterwords.
2. The importer will access your Blogger account directly. Click on Authorize and sign in with the Google account you use for Blogger.
3. Click on Grant Access.
4. The page should return to WordPress on allhutterites Blogs. It should show your Blogger Blog Name, Blog URL, Posts, Comments, and The Magic Button. Click on Import.
5. Allow the importing to finish. You will now be able to start setting up the rest of your blog.
Moving your blog from WordPress to allhutterites Blogs is fairly easy because we use WordPress too. Just follow these steps:
1. Export your old blog: Dashboard – Tools – Export – Download Export File.
2. Log into your new blog on allhutterites.
3. Import your old blog: Dashboard – Tools – Import – WordPress. Browse for the Export File you just downloaded, then click on Upload File And Import. If it asks you to download and import attachments, select yes.
4. Wait until everything has been transfered. You can now start setting up the rest of your blog!
In the last little while, allhutterites has taken a different turn. Rather than just being a social network, we are now providing blogs for our users (Schmiedleut Group 1 Hutterites). These blogs reflect the very essence of what our lives our about – our faith and our community.
To request your own blog, follow this link and fill out the form. You should receive an email within 24 hours with your blog information, including a password. The password is automatically generated and you can change it at any time. Just log into your blog, click on Users – Your Profile.
I will use this blog (the official allhutterites Blog) to keep you updated with an changes. I’ll also try to provide a variety of tutorials on how to use WordPress, including the plugins.
Transferring your blog from Blogger/Blogspot to WordPress is fairly easy.
In the last little while, allhutterites has taken a different turn. Rather than just being a social network, we are now providing blogs for our users (Schmiedleut Group 1 Hutterites). These blogs reflect the very essence of what our lives our about – our faith and our community.
Pebbles In My Pocket