Snoskred Explains

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Some Blog Housekeeping

11 Comments Posted on December 1, 2015December 1, 2015 by Snoskred

Feed Bundles

If you have dropped by the blog lately, you might have noticed a couple of new things in the sidebar. A while back, someone asked me if I could put together a list of my favourite blogs. I finally got around to doing that, but then I thought.. I should not stop there. So I have created 4 bundles.

– Favourites – The 100 blogs in my Faves folders.

– Main Blogroll – 152 of the blogs listed on my main blogroll.

– Updated Often – the remaining 16 feeds from my main blogroll who sometimes post more than 2 posts a day.

– Test Drives – All the 315 blogs I am test driving (current as at 30/11)

The reason for the Updated Often bundle is because if I put those blogs in with the other blogs, sometimes you’d see anywhere between 3-16 posts in a row for the same blog which works ok in the bundle but does *not* work ok when I’ve put all these bundles as RSS feeds in the blog sidebar, showing 20 posts at a time for each bundle. So I just pulled those blogs out and put them in their own bundle.

So, if you are looking for new blogs to read, you can check out the bundles. If you click on the links above it will take you to the bundle page where you can scroll through and see if a photo or title catches your eye. This is one reason many people recommend putting a photo with each post. If your feed is partial, people will probably not see any of your images, they might only get a title and some text.

UNSUBSCRIBE ME

There I am, on a peaceful Friday, scrolling through my feed reader.. and all of a sudden, a massive Huntsman photo appears as a surprise to me. Seriously? That is Not Cool, people. I hit unsubscribe within moments, then removed that blog from my blogroll and my Inoreader bundle. My skin was crawling for several hours. Ugh!

As a blogger, I am well aware that people are reading what I write and viewing what I post. I know there are people out there who fear these particular creatures. I would never, ever, post a photo of a snake or a spider on my blog without using a Read More tag. I’d write a little thing at the end of the post that said “Hey, I’m about to post a photo of a spider (snake) so if you are ok with seeing that, you can click here to see it”.

I guess I will have to start working on my next reasons I unsubscribe post. :) Here the current ones – 14 Reasons and 10 New Reasons I unsubscribed from blogs.

However if a favourite posted a spider pic, I’d be annoyed, sure! I’d still have the skin crawling thing, but I’d get over it and keep reading the blog. This is not an invitation to my favourites to start posting that kind of thing, please don’t do that. ;)

Going Forward

I’m going to try and only touch the blogroll and bundles once a month when I do the new feeds post. Right now, I unsubscribe somewhat willy nilly but whenever I do it, I go in and remove the blog from the blogroll if it was there, and I remove it from the bundles. This has resulted in occasional chaos, so it must stop. :) I might make a new folder and call it unsubscribes, to try and keep track of them.

blog housekeeping, feed readers, Inoreader, New Feeds

RNT Company Scam

411 Comments Posted on September 16, 2015November 5, 2015 by Snoskred

With thanks to Mary Villahermosa who posted this email on the LCN Company Scam post – as I suspected these scammers have now changed their name.

Hello,

At this moment we have full-time and partial position.

RNT Company is a worldwide goods retailer so your central tasks will include sales support for deals held in Australia: keep the data of all the purchases and payments; communicate with our clients in America, Eastern Europe and Asia; do all the necessary service and support to our sales office.

You will have up to 3500 AUD monthly plus benefits for the part-time vacancy and for full-time post – 5500 AUD monthly plus benefits. We have a probation period, during which you will be trained and guided. This period is also paid.

Conditions are easy. You just need to have computer with access to the Internet, also basic Excel skills (the software must be pre-installed), negotiation experience.

Please respond to us back. CV will be a great plus for our HR team.

Have a great day!

PLEASE Don’t Tell Them!

It seems these scammers were using a template from LMP Company and they have switched names because the very first result for LMP Company now leads to scamwarners. Now, LCN Company leads to my post that it is a scam. So they are now changing their name to RNT Company.

So – please – do not tell scammers that their company name is listed here or anywhere else on the web as a scam – it will take them mere seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be easily searchable for any future victims to find.

How Do You Know This Job Is A Scam?

This is a fake job scam. You can read more about how these scams work at Scamwatch.

In this case it seems they are direct depositing stolen or fraudulent funds into the bank accounts of scam victims. The money will appear to be legit to begin with. They will ask you to transfer funds to them via Western Union or Moneygram. It may take up to a year for the transaction to be reversed but it WILL be reversed and when it is, you will be required to pay the money back to the bank.

Mega Important Note!!

If you got this email from a different name and email address, please leave a comment asap, you can use a fake name and email address to post the comment if you like. I’ll regularly add in other names, email addresses, website addresses, and any other info you can provide in to the post. It will help other people who are searching for the names. Thanks everyone who leaves a comment, it WILL stop people from getting scammed. :)

If your email was slightly different, or you have further emails from these scammers, please post them in the comments. Your comment will go to moderation and I will double check before it is posted to make sure there is no identifying information eg your email address or your details.

I expect they will be spamming their scam posts out to a multitude of email addresses over coming days, so please help out and give us the email address they are using, so that other people searching for that email address can find this post.

I gave them my bank account details?

If you gave them the account name, BSB and account number, they can easily print fake cheques with that information. You definitely need to speak to your bank about this ASAP.

In this particular instance, you may find they deposit a sum into your account – or they may send your account a payment from a stolen credit card. If that happens, DO NOT touch that money, because eventually the bank will reverse that payment.

If it were my bank details, I would close that account as a matter of great urgency. Speak to your bank as soon as you can, and they will likely advise you to do that.

I would advise anyone caught out by this scam to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and also to Scamwatch via this form. The scam victim may be able to sort out a deal with the bank where the bank pays some – or all – of the losses.

More About Scams

You can see my collection of fake cheques collected from fake job scams here – Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year!

You can read more about internet safety and scams here – Internet Safety & Scams – What You Need To Know.

The LCN Post –

Since it was posted on June 4th 2015, almost 9,000 people arrived at my website specifically by searching for words and email addresses that appeared in the LCN Company Team Scam post. That post received nearly 300 comments and I personally received and replied to hundreds of emails and contact forms with email addresses, URLs, further emails, and other important information which helped people find out that was a scam.

Thank You

For reading this post. Thank you for leaving a comment if you have any further information which will help other potential scam victims to find this post as well. :) You can contact me privately via this page if you like, I will reply – usually within 24 hours – if you provide a valid email address.

Further Emails –

Dear NAME,

We would like to offer position of Administrative Assistant at our company. Please, find more information about us and this position below.

RNT is a leading distributor of finest designer goods. Currently it is one of the most important specializing in online sales. With more than 5 years of experience in the designer goods industry. We offer a continuous renovation in our collections, following the latest trends in each country and season, thus satisfying the demand of clients. We always keep in mind that prices are an important factor when it comes to sales.

We are looking for a responsible person in Australia who will be ready to incur all necessary activities. Our candidate should be highly motivated. We believe that the experience is not the most important thing. The key to success is a fresh look and bold ideas!

The main duties of Administrative Assistant:

– Helping Entity’s Sales Department as a special projects support
– Data entry and other functions as specified in the instruction
– Running reports for all completed deals and wire transfers
– Providing overall administrative maintenance such as making of letters, processing purchase orders and transaction reports etc.
– Emailing correspondence every day

Hours: Full-time or part-time schedule possible. Your schedule can be irregular. For a part time variant – you will spend 3 hours per day average, from Monday to Friday.

Salary: Essential pay for a part time job is 840AUD on a weekly basis
plus 5 percent commission. Full-time job pay is 1300AUD on a weekly basis plus commission.

You will be on Probation period for your first month.

I’m sending you Application Form and short presentation of RNT(you can
find it attached to this email). You can find full job description in
the brochure(pages: 9-18). Please read it carefully, complete and send
it back to me via email or by fax +1-832-248-2766. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you,
Sarah Robson

Names & Email Addresses being used –

Sarah Robson – sarahrobson@rnt-hr.com – Jayne Womble – womble.jayne27h4@hotmail.com – boyd.paulitanp@hotmail.com – seguin.vickey650@hotmail.com – reimann.ashleyt44@hotmail.com – herman.goughj928@hotmail.com – dirk.cortez0hk@hotmail.com – solorio.leonej8e7@hotmail.com – branden.farrand76@hotmail.com = fawn.gainer237@hotmail.com

luettajtdillehayov0521@hotmail.com – luiseysyettofw7303@hotmail.com – lurlinegvgaylordpe6021@hotmail.com – lurazofluetbk0104@hotmail.com – luisehnevermanw9849@hotmail.com – luezmhieberwt3053@hotmail.com – luratxgerldo7425@hotmail.com – luisehnevermanw9849@hotmail.com – luznmogrenk0669@hotmail.com – lucreciaqhessingw5257@hotmail.com – luveniamdmermelsteindz7499@hotmail.com – luvisomesub@hotmail.com –

lurlenecsehmeriz1830@hotmail.com – luiseuvoorhiesv4156@hotmail.com – rakarai1979@mail.com – luettaqqmccabeap0317@hotmail.com – lulaggoldingert1009@hotmail.com – lunaykarbowskir1607@hotmail.com – lucinagkealohah2780@hotmail.com – luisnvcanelapk9601@hotmail.com – luiseysyettofw7303@hotmail.com – luisnvcanelapk9601@hotmail.com – Luiseyhreyerif0819@hotmail.com – lupitaiwcarninegp1870@hotmail.com –

lulagoldingert1009@Hotmail.com – ludieachristensenq7500@hotmail.com – sararobson@rnt-job.com – lurahctorresdn9533@hotmail.com – ludieachristensenq7500@hotmail.com – lurlenepdominquei2103@hotmail.com – sararobson@workrnt.com – lurlinegvgaylordpe6021@hotmail.com – antoninaumatskot0015@hotmail.com

susydsaultsb3407@hotmail.com – maidapstrongt8112@hotmail.com – constance.greenblatti36q@hotmail.com – corrinvjoasr0727@hotmail.com – geniawcaparrosn1297@hotmail.com – sixtadgulinsony7767@hotmail.com – fredianhanekampd2350@hotmail.com – cammyhengquistr9677@hotmail.com – twanaccrispj7504@hotmail.com – geniawcaparrosn1297@hotmail.com – alicendarlingtonu9334@hotmail.com – tiannaaocallaghanj7164@hotmail.com –

nereidaccastellanoa2013@hotmail.com – jeanellemrufust7780@hotmail.com – margaritedswaggertyw4873@hotmail.com – luisalkiersteadm4914@hotmail.com – laurettahburrighto9272@hotmail.com – kenyaspagetz0655@hotmail.com – alicendarlingtonu9334@hotmail.com – lorriqgohny3142@hotmail.com – lusethacheryy0808@hotmail.com – sararobson@workrnt.com – ceceliaxmalinem7261@hotmail.com – e-tote@freemail.hu – chelseaxlinkowskia3144@hotmail.com

alecpinero@mail.com – tinishatvicek7652@hotmail.com – zelmaokennas6535@hotmail.com – sybilflydiau6925@hotmail.com – nidaqkeattsu5992@hotmail.com – sherillymcelveenq4864@hotmail.com – Juho Huomo – alannanoseig7823@hotmail.com – karagdopazob6406@hotmail.com – letishaamastellerr4791@hotmail.com – lenitantselees9678@hotmail.com – ThomasBruce@alumnidirector.com – alannanoseig7823@homail.com – shanakkermanm5234@hotmail.com –

tinishatvicek7652@hotmail.com – sherylysundbergb3096@hotmail.com – kyungoimasterapa8814@hotmail.com – aureliaogollerj7552@hotmail.com – aureliaogollerj7552@hotmail.com – sirenalgehretd0939@hotmail.com – esterkmoulz7723@hotmail.com – ardellarsandstromt7200@hotmail.com – johannagdelozierp1783@hotmail.com – noemiqfriskneyy3396@hotmail.com – Vanitancallejor9522@hotmail.com – rachelecnduemmelos0877@hotmail.com –

ardellarsandstromt7200@hotmail.com – theabvyeamansl5409@hotmail.com – alannanoseig7823@homail.com – maek@hot-shot.com – rachelecnduemmelos0877@hotmail.com – letishaamastellerr4791@hotmail.com – karajqlouisbz5389@hotmail.com – kindratrseabrooksji7014@hotmail.com – elenorszhazlegroveii9070@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – karajqlouisbz5389@hotmail.com – nidaqkeattsu5992@hotmail.com –

dannetteegbenyamindm9355@hotmail.com – glynisdacorlezu7276@hotmail.com – johannagdelozierp1783@hotmail.com – tawanajsteenburghe4250@hotmail.com – marlinekpasterv6463@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – carahksteerecw8565@hotmail.com – shiraeilunfordfa8623@hotmail.com – johannagdelozierp1783@hotmail.com – elenorszhazlegroveii9070@hotmail.com – clarissaawoodenu3892@hotmail.com – leisaqzingallsjh4402@hotmail.com

ettiehbheppnerzw1108@hotmail.com – yanirafushartrandfg9030@hotmail.com – leisaqzingallsjh4402@hotmail.com – akikoyjallinxc8263@hotmail.com – theabvyeamansl5409@hotmail.com – elenorszhazlegroveii9070@hotmail.com – alannanoseig7823@hotmail.com – azucenadwklaphakeys6702@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – glynisdacorlezu7276@hotmail.com – hermelindavboudreaud13@hotmail.com – akikoyjallinxc8263@hotmail.com

azucenadwklaphakeys6702@hotmail.com – ardellarsandstromt7200@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – leisaqzingallsjh4402@hotmail.com – carahksteerecw8565@hotmail.com – noemiqfriskneyy3396@hotmail.com – luannaektibbertpp0678@hotmail.com – vanitancallejor9522@hotmail.com – kyungoimasterapa8814@hotmail.com – lenitantselees9678@hotmail.com – luannaektibbertpp0678@hotmail.com – shanakkerzmanm5234@hotmail.com –

fawn.gainer@hotmail.com – rachelecnduemmeloso877@hotmail.com – zelmaokennas6535@hotmail.com – nidaqkeattsu5992@hotmail.com – sararobson@rntrecruit.com – dannetteegbenyamindm9355@hotmail.com – sybilflydiau6925@hotmail.com – sherylysunderbergb3096@hotmail.com – clarissaawoodenu3892@hotmail.com – tawanajsteenburghe4250@hotmail.com –

Angry Snoskred, job scams, www safety

Trouble Brewing @ Lumosity

41 Comments Posted on September 7, 2015September 6, 2015 by Snoskred

I may need some kind of intervention, because I can’t stop playing this game on Lumosity. I’ve been a member there since 2012 and I enjoy the brain training. I can tell you that it has improved my brain, in particular my maths and memory.

So what is Trouble Brewing all about? Making coffee. It is a divided attention time management game. It helps with multi-tasking and in general I was already pretty good at that to begin with considering that was what I did 6 hours a day 4-5 days a week in my last job. But this game has me challenged and pushing myself continually to get to the next level.

To begin with, it is all fun and games and relatively easy because the coffee making machine and the orders are all on the same page.

As you progress, the order screen and the coffee machine screen separate a little. You’ll have a couple of machines on the order screen, then a screen with more machines. Like this –

But when you reach level 9, a terrible happens. You now have one order screen in the middle, and two separate coffee machine screens. Like this –

The order screen

Cafe screen one

Cafe screen two – you can see the coffee level indicator is telling me that cups are nearly full on the other screen. Each level you have to fill more orders but the time does not increase – at least it hasn’t yet. 40 cups in two minutes on level 9.. that is a lot of orders to fill in two minutes!

At the end of the game you get to see your score and your top 5 scores.

As I write this on the 16th of August, I am stuck on level 9. It is my hope that one day soon all the stars will align and the moon will smile on me and I’ll do everything in exactly the right way in order to pass this level and move to level 10.

Update – 05/09/2015

FINALLY!!!!! This is the day the stars aligned and the moon loved me enough to let me complete all 40 orders in 2 minutes. I’m still having trouble believing I finally got past level 9.

Playing this game so much has made me better at the other divided attention *and* memory games because this game uses memory to remember what orders need to be filled. This week I got top scores in Train of Thought and Star Search, plus a memory game where items wash up on a beach and you have to pick ones you have not picked on previous waves. I’m thinking it might be worth focusing in on one particular game for a week at a time and seeing how much I can improve.

Obviously Lumosity have not paid me anything to say this – in fact I have paid them in order to play the games. Nearly two years ago I bought the family plan – it runs out in November, then it is every man for themselves. You can likely find free brain training games on the web, if you look for them. I love the convenience, record keeping, encouragement, and the happy and positive vibe of Lumosity. I’m not sure how much the basic plan costs over there but I know I’ll be signing up for it again.

Over to you –

Do you brain train? :)

exercise, Gaming, Lumosity, time management

How To: Claim Your Blog At Bloglovin’

5 Comments Posted on September 1, 2015August 31, 2015 by Snoskred

First up, you will want to create an account over at Bloglovin’ if you do not already have one. You only need to enter a name, email address, and password to create your account. You’ll need to confirm your email before proceeding. Make sure to check your spam as it may land there :)

Click on the link and yay, you’ve created an account! Once you have done that, you will arrive at a page asking you to begin creating your feed.

Always, always put your own blog in first, is my advice. :) You want to see how your blog looks and make sure your posted content is coming through as you intend it to appear.

To get past this screen, you want to enter in one blog quickly and then you can click on done and head to your profile which is where you can claim your blog.

Click on the profile picture in the top right hand corner, or select “Profile” from the drop down menu.

This takes you to your profile. Click on Edit Your Profile. In this case I have created a test profile so it will look exactly like you’ll see it. Meet Testy, my tester.

Scroll down the page until you see profile info, and look for the Blogs by me section. Click on Add Blog.

A popup box will appear. Type in the name of your blog, and it will go off and search, eventually coming back with a list like this –

If your blog is listed there click on it and you will end up at a new screen that looks like this –

In a new tab or window, copy and paste the code into a new blog post, and publish the post. When the post is published, click on claim blog, and Bloglovin will check your blog for the post, thus identifying you as the owner of the blog.

I did mine a long time ago so for the purposes of this post, I am claiming a blog I don’t use much anymore, Scambaiter Haven. This is the screen you’ll end up at, once your blog is claimed. You’ll also receive an email. If you already have followers, you’ll see a lovely graph of how many followers you have.

You might want to go into your profile and add in some more stuff about yourself, put in an image, etc. You might also want to add the widget to your blog sidebar, and follow some bloggers over there.

I also recommend checking the settings screen because it has a lot of emails pre-ticked to send to you. I unticked a lot of these, though I do get the daily summary of bloggers I follow, email when someone starts following me so that I can follow them back, and the weekly stats post.

In conclusion –

You might be reading this thinking.. why do I want to claim my blog, I don’t really want to sign up for yet another thing, I already have a feed reader why would I want to use this one, etc.

Claiming your blog isn’t for *you* so much as it is for the people who already use Bloglovin’ who might want to follow you. It is also a way new readers can find your blog.

Chances are you already have some people over there following you, and you’ve got no idea who those people are because you have not claimed your blog. :) They might have a blog, and if they like your blog, maybe you will like theirs.

As I said in yesterday’s post, this month I am doing some exploring over on Bloglovin’ and at the end of the month you’ll hear all about it plus see all the new blogs I found there.

Over to you –

Will you claim your blog over at Bloglovin’? :)

feed readers, how to guides

Blogger, Don’t You Lose My Comment!

22 Comments Posted on July 24, 2015July 19, 2015 by Snoskred

I think I have finally learned my lesson in regards to commenting on Blogger / Blogspot / Google blogs – always, *always* copy the comment I have written before clicking on Publish! That way, if Blogger loses my comment, I can at least paste it back in again.

In the course of learning this lesson, I think I have unearthed a couple of clues that might tell you when you will lose your comment for certain. And here they are.

1. Missing Notify Me Box

If you are leaving a comment on a blog you are familiar with and you have used the notify me tickbox before.. when you find the notify me box is missing, that is a sign that Blogger does not know who you are, and therefore does not know where it should email any future comments.

If the notify me box is missing, this is a sign that when you hit publish, your comment will disappear into the ether never to be seen again.

Another way to double check if the notify me box is present is to make sure when you tick the box, the correct email address appears, as you see above.

2. Missing Account Name

If your Google account name is missing from the Comment as: area, this is another sign that blogger does not know who you are, and therefore cannot leave a comment for you, unless you pick one of the other options. It should look like this –

If it doesn’t look like this, you may not be signed in properly. If you hit publish, your comment will probably disappear into the ether never to be seen again.

However, it is important to note, you can be signed in properly but Blogger can still not know who you and lose your comment. Which leads me back to my number one tip –

3. Regardless, COPY!

Google/Blogger/Blogspot can lose your comment but if you have copied it, you can paste it back in! Always do this, but especially if you have spent significant time writing your comment. This is your number one way of giving a huge middle finger to Google! You can lose my comments Google, but you cannot take my SANITY! :) or, my ability to hit right click, copy.

This is a good habit to get into wherever you are commenting, because sometimes things go wrong and your comment may vanish. With that said, Blogger loses my comments way more often than any other blogging platform.

Do you have a blogger blog, but you do not have a notify me box? Check out this post – How To – Add Tickbox For Blogger Comment Emails.

Over to you –

Do your comments get lost very often? What steps do you take to prevent this? :) Do you have any hints or tips for fellow blog commentators? Leave them in the comments! ;)

Annoyed Snoskred, Blogger, how to guides

How To – Create Free Link Ups Via SimplyLinked

14 Comments Posted on July 6, 2015July 5, 2015 by Snoskred

I often see bloggers inviting other bloggers to participate in a blog award, or a weekly challenge, or even just asking other bloggers to provide links to blogs that they enjoy reading.

These days probably 75% of the time, it seems that bloggers are not using any of the link up tools that are available out there on the interwebs. I often think the major reason for not using these tools is because people tend to think these tools are a lot more complicated than they actually are, that setting up an account is time consuming, that it is all Too Hard.. but as this how to guide will show you, that is not the case at all.

If I told you that within the space of 10 minutes, you could create your account *and* your first link up, would you give it a try? If I am honest, it is more likely to take around 5 minutes, given it took me 6 minutes and I was taking screenshots and editing them in between.

How To – Create Free Link Ups Via SimplyLinked

Now I’m going to show you how to use one of the completely free, easiest and simplest link up tools which can save you a lot of time and energy PLUS make it easier for people to link up to whatever it is you have going on at your blog. The tool is called Simply Linked.

First up, we have to create your account. Click on Sign up for a free account.

You only need to provide 6 details as seen above – your name, email address, name of your website, website url, username and password. When you’ve filled in the boxes, hit submit.

And you have created your account. Easy, no? So click on the link to go back to the home page and log in.

Type in the username and password you just created, and hit submit. You’ll then find yourself logged in.

There is not a lot to see here, because you have not created any link ups. So let us create one. Click on Create New List.

Put in your link up name, and choose standard as the option. Click on create list.

You will then have created your link up and you will be provided with some javascript code to paste into your blog. Simply copy it, and then paste it into your blog post. The finished product should look a lot like this – though my blog theme seems to have taken over making the button look quite spiffy here on my blog –

It really is that simple. In fact, even with me taking screenshots, I had created my account and my first link up within 6 minutes. To create a new link up while logged in is only as long as it takes you to type in the title.

Once you have created a link up, you can view it via the current lists screen, just click on current lists. To view the links which have been added, click on the link up name.

Once people start adding links, you can choose to edit or delete them.

Added links will appear at the top, above the place where people can add their links.

The best thing about this tool is – everything remains within your blog. Nobody is being sent elsewhere – they add their link within the post you’ve written. Here is a test link up, so you can give it a try right here if you like, I also want to see how it goes through on my feed..

This link up tool does not give you the option to use thumbnail images at all. There are link tools available which will allow people to add thumbnail images but *all* of those tools cost money. The tool I use here – Inlinkz – is a little more complicated to create a basic link up, and Inlinkz costs me $20 a year to allow thumbnails and have some extra options, eg I can allow my link ups to remain open forever.

Simply Linked is a good, basic, free option. You do have to keep an eye on your links to make sure nobody adds any spam – this is one reason why I would suggest that you close off link ups after a certain amount of time has passed. I am assuming they will add other options which people will have to pay for, eventually. Simply Linked is an excellent option for people wanting fast and easy to create link ups.

I will show you around – and how to use – Inlinkz in a future how to guide. I probably should also mention, in case anyone was wondering.. none of these companies are paying me to write about their link up tools, by the way. :)

Will You Use This Tool?

Over to you – let me know, do you think this is a tool you could use on your blog?

blogging tips, how to guides

How to – Schedule Posts In Blogger & WordPress

5 Comments Posted on June 15, 2015June 11, 2015 by Snoskred

It has been a while since I did a how to schedule posts in WordPress post, so long in fact, that the old post is pretty much useless now. WordPress looks nothing like it did back then. I thought it is high time for an updated post on this topic, but I thought I would make sure to include Blogger as well. :)

If you use Typepad, this post is for you – How To Change Post Date & Time.

Why Schedule?

There are a lot of reasons why bloggers might want to schedule posts ahead of time. Going on holidays is probably the number one reason people would use this feature.

I work on a Mon-Wed-Fri posting schedule here on the blog. The main reason I schedule posts is because when I am inspired to write, I am REALLY inspired to write, and I might write 5-10 posts in the space of an afternoon. Obviously I do not want to *post* 5-10 posts all at once. It would be overwhelming to my readers, and it would mean I have no posts available the next time I am not inspired to write.

Timing Is Important

It also means you can set your posts to publish at the time of day people will be around to see them. For example here on my blog, I presently post things at 7am AEST. I am fast asleep in bed at that time, guaranteed. But posting my posts early here in Australia means I also catch the evening web surfers in the USA and the late night web surfers in the UK.

If I bumped it up to 5am, I might get the evening web surfers in the UK and super early morning surfers in Australia.. hmm, that is worth considering.

What Time Is Best?

You might get more eyes on your blog post if you change the time of day that you post it. It could be worth doing some experiments to see what times of day work best for your blog.

If you use a site counter or site stats program many of them will tell you what time of day people are visiting, of course taking into consideration they do not always show you every visit to your blog and can be unreliable. You can also consider what time people leave comments.

You could do a blog post and ask your regular readers to comment about what time of day they read your blog and whether they would prefer a different timing. Consider where your commentators live in the world and what time it is there when you post. Seasonal timing matters too – when we switch to daylight savings here, I will likely post at 6am AEST.

If you want to check what time it is in other places when you post, you can use the world clock meeting planner here.

Are you ready?

For the how to guides? :) It is quite a few screenshots, so I am using the read more feature today. Click through to see the how to guide! Continue reading →

Blogger, how to guides, wordpress

How To – Get Started With Inoreader

10 Comments Posted on June 1, 2015July 13, 2015 by Snoskred

Mid-May, an ex-work colleague of mine sent me an email. She and I had talked once about blogs and I’d mentioned my feed reader and explained how it worked. She had no idea where to start looking for a feed reader and searching for one had just confused her more, could I recommend a good feed reader?

I was writing my reply to suggest Inoreader but I wanted to include a link to a quick how to get started guide. A lot of the get started guides talked about how to import feeds from another feed reader, which my friend would not need to do.

I figured it would be easier to create something simple which would not confuse her, so I sent screenshots and instructions. Then I thought, why not put a how to guide here on the blog as well? So without further ado..

How to – Get Started With Inoreader

If you do not have a feed reader yet, and you are looking for one.. Inoreader is brilliant and super quick. You can get started just by entering an email address and a password. So open this link – Inoreader – in a new window, click on “Create a free account” and then follow this quick tutorial below to get feed reading.

Yes, all you will need is an email account and a password.

You can also connect with Facebook or Google. If you choose those options you will have to allow Inoreader to get your email address and basic profile info. Me personally, I prefer the email address and password option, but this is your account, so whatevs. :)

So once you have created your account you will arrive at the above screen. My advice – skip this first step. Chances are you know what blogs you want to subscribe to.

You will then be offered a free tour. My advice – DO NOT skip this step. :) Take the tour. I’ll be right here waiting when you’re done.

Ok, so the tour is over, and now you see the main Inoreader screen. Of course, you’ll want to add me right away! Just type in my name..

and there you see me. Select me, and then this screen will pop up.

Click on subscribe.

And there you have it – you subscribed to your first blog. Now, add in others that you want to read. You can try typing in the name, though be aware sometimes that might be a hard way to find a blog if the name is not unique.

What if you type in the blog name and nothing comes up? Then you can try entering the blog URL. Lets put in my rewatch breaking bad blog URL. Once you enter it, Inoreader will go off and try to find a feed, once the feed is found you can click on it and it will automatically subscribe to that feed.

By now you have probably received an email welcoming you to Inoreader and asking you to confirm your email. Simply click on the link to confirm your email address.

So that gives you a quick overview of Inoreader and how to get started on setting it up. There is a really great support forum where questions are usually answered very quickly and the Inoreader blog has a lot of how to guides.

Best of all, there are mobile apps for iPhones and Android so you can read your subscriptions on the go. If you get stuck waiting out and about, you can catch up on your blog reading and it syncs up so you don’t read things more than once as a surprise to yourself.. :)

What Does Snoskred Use?

Me personally here at home, we have TinyRSS set up on our server because after Google Reader screwed their users over, I wasn’t going to use a third party feed reader again. I wanted complete control.

However for NaBloPoMo 2014, I tried out Inoreader and I found it to be excellent. They have a great support forum and when I asked a question there it was answered very quickly. Plus, you can create bundles to easily share your feeds with other people.

What Blogs Does Snoskred Read?

I have a process which I follow – when I find a new blog, I add it to the feed reader. On the last day of each month, I post a New Feeds post, which links to all the new blogs I am reading.

I test drive the new blogs for 6 months. At the end of 6 months I review each blog. If I have enjoyed reading the blog, I add it to the main blogroll.

What Makes Snoskred Unsubscribe?

The number one reason that I unsubscribe from new blogs is due to the blog providing a partial feed. I have written a couple of posts on other reasons I tend to unsubscribe – 10 New Reasons I Unsubscribed From Blogs – 14 Reasons Readers Unsubscribe From Blogs. I am not suggesting these reasons are always deal breakers for me

Do you feed read?

Over to you, tell me what you are using to read blogs. :) Would you like more how to guides for Inoreader?

If you have a blog, please leave me a comment wth link to your place, I’d love to check it out.. :)

feed readers, how to guides, Inoreader

How To – Add A WordPress.com Follow Button To Self Hosted WordPress.

10 Comments Posted on May 8, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

Why yes, that is a super long title but I have posted it in the hope that it will end up on the very first page of multiple search engines because I searched for a how-to do this for several hours the other day with zero luck..

Giving up on searching via Dogpile, Google, etc, I then searched wordpress.org support and also the support forum for the Jetpack plugin. I could find plenty of people asking how to do this, and zero answers. I ended up having to lodge a support ticket and I got an answer back which helped me work it out.

A lot of people when they receive the answer seem to keep it to themselves – not updating their support threads with the answer – which is probably why I could not find it, no matter how hard I searched. So here is the answer for anyone looking for it!

Important note – for this to work, you need to have the Jetpack plugin enabled on your self hosted wordpress blog.

1. Go to Jetpack –> Settings.

2. Activate JSON API within Jetpack – also take note, you will need to leave this activated for the button to continue to work.

3. Visit the Follow Button Creation page.

4. Scroll down to the area where you can enter in your blog URL. Enter it, then decide if you want to show how many followers you have, and whether you want to show your blog name. If you have a long blog name like mine, the button will be super long! Then, hit generate.

5. Copy the code which has been generated.

6. Go into your add widget area within appearance.

7. Paste the code into a text widget on your self-hosted wordpress blog. Hit save, and you are done!

Happy moments! :) And Whew, thank the deities that is over.

But I’m on wordpress.com?

Well then, this is super easy. :)

1. In Appearance –> Widgets – scroll down the page until you see Follow Button.

2. Drag and drop the follow button over to your sidebar.

3. Click on the little drop down arrow to see the options, adjust your options to suit and then click on save.

Done!

blogging tips, how to guides, wordpress, Wordpress Training Wheels

How To – Add Tickbox For Blogger Comment Emails

6 Comments Posted on May 7, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

In setting your blogger blog to be full feed, you might accidentally cancel out the opportunity for your comments area to contain the all important “Notify Me” tick box – this tick box allows your commentators to choose to receive follow up emails when other commentators leave a comment.

Go to Settings –> Other –> Site Feed –> From the drop down box, select custom.

Then, leave site feed as full, but turn off blog comment feed and per post comment feeds by selecting none as the option.

Click on Save Settings in the top right hand corner.

When you go back to your comments form, you should now see the tick box in the bottom right hand corner which says “Notify Me”.

When your commentators are logged into Gmail and they click on notify me, it will advise them which email address replies will be sent to, as you see above.

It might be worth letting your commentators know that you have enabled this feature via a quick post.. :)

And there you have it!

Over to you!

Do you like to receive follow up emails for blog comments?

blogging tips, how to guides

Feed Bundles

Blogroll Update

UNSUBSCRIBE ME

Going Forward

PLEASE Don’t Tell Them!

How Do You Know This Job Is A Scam?

Mega Important Note!!

I gave them my bank account details?

More About Scams

The LCN Post –

Thank You

Further Emails –

Names & Email Addresses being used –

Update – 05/09/2015

Over to you –

In conclusion –

Over to you –

1. Missing Notify Me Box

2. Missing Account Name

3. Regardless, COPY!

Over to you –

How To – Create Free Link Ups Via SimplyLinked

Will You Use This Tool?

Why Schedule?

Timing Is Important

What Time Is Best?

Are you ready?

How to – Get Started With Inoreader

What Does Snoskred Use?

What Blogs Does Snoskred Read?

What Makes Snoskred Unsubscribe?

Do you feed read?

But I’m on wordpress.com?

Go to Settings –> Other –> Site Feed –> From the drop down box, select custom. Then, leave site feed as full, but turn off blog comment feed and per post comment feeds by selecting none as the option. Click on Save Settings in the top right hand corner.

Over to you!

Go to Settings –> Other –> Site Feed –> From the drop down box, select custom.

Then, leave site feed as full, but turn off blog comment feed and per post comment feeds by selecting none as the option.

Click on Save Settings in the top right hand corner.