RSS Subscription Options

To subscribe to this blog, you can use the following feed:

http://feedproxy.google.com/BenTheDrummersPersonalBlog

Or you use any of the subscription buttons below:

Or if you are confused learn what RSS is and how to subscribe to an RSS feed.

Or if RSS scares you try the email subscription option:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

[ Continue Reading... ]

What is RSS and How To Use Them

Have you ever come across this word RSS, or people asking you to subscribe to their RSS feed? Do you actually know what's it for and how can you use it to save you time? Then read on.

Before I start, watch this short video – RSS In Plain English.



The Basics

In a nutshell, RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and you don't have to know what it means in order to use it. You can use RSS to syndicate or subscribe to the feed of a website, blog or almost any media content online (not just articles, it can be music, video, podcast or almost any digital media).

You can also read from Wikipedia entries on XML, RSS, Web Syndication and Web Feed.

By syndicating, you subscribe to the feed of the website, which means you don't have to constantly visit the many different website to read or access the latest content. Instead you use a feed reading software or a website to read the latest articles or content. Instead of going to each of your favourite sites individually, you can collect all the feeds of the sites (provided they make them available) in one place. The purpose of syndication is to therefore make it more efficient for you to read your favorite content and save you a lot of time.

Feed Readers

Currently I'm using Google Reader. It is a web based reader. To use it, you just need to have a Google account, which I believe most of you have.

Here are some other web based feed reader that you can try out.

- Google Reader
- Bloglines
- NewsGator
- My Yahoo!

Browser Feed Reader

Most browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox will automatically check a website to see if it has feeds and if it does the RSS icon will display so you know that this option is available.

In Mozilla Firefox the button appears in the URL bar.


In Internet Explorer the button appears on the menu bar.


Subscribing to a Website or a Blog

In order to subscribe to an RSS feed, you will need to search for the orange RSS link button which looks like this.



For example, the RSS feed link for my blog looks like this – http://feedproxy.google.com/BenTheDrummersPersonalBlog. After clicking on it, you'll be taken to another page. On that page, can see a list of my feed content listed out. In order to subscribe, you'll need to choose the feed reader of your choice.

If you noticed, my feeds are summarized. In order to read the whole article or content, you'll need to click through to my blog to read the rest of it. I use a third party service called Feedburner which was acquired buy Google not long ago. Feedburner adds extra features to my feed output and most importantly it provides me with statistics on how many people subscribe to my blog.

Subscribe by Email

For some websites, you can also subscribe to their RSS by Email. In order to subscribe, you're required to enter your email address in the form. Whenever there are updates from the website, you'll be sent an email. This feature is also provided by Feedburner.

You can see at the top right sidebar of my blog for an example. There's an RSS feed button together with the Email form.

In Conclusion

All blogs will have a link which you can subscribe to. It might be referred to as an RSS feed, feed, RSS channel, Syndicate, RDF feed, XML feed, or Atom feed, but they all essentially the same thing.

RSS is designed to make our Internet life easier. At the moment, it’s worthwhile to become familiar with this technology simply because you are going to be seeing a lot more of it. If you can keep abreast of the technology wave you will have less frustration when using the Internet.

P.S. Don't forget to subscribe my RSS feed to your favorite RSS reader in order to be notified of new updates and help save your valuable time from jumping from blogs to blogs, checking for updates.

Update: Try out the RSS Subscription Options I've provided.

[ Continue Reading... ]

Why I Removed My Chatbox

It's already been more than 5 months that I've changed to this new template. I'm sure some of you notice that I've removed my chatbox from my blog. There are many reasons why I remove it and there are the pros and cons for me taking away the chatbox.

The main reason why I remove the chatbox is because some of the readers will just leave their comments in the chatbox rather than using the comment form in the post itself. The purpose to have a comment form for each post is for you readers to have your oppinions and comments to contribute further on the content or to disagree on the post and everyone will have a chance to see it. But if you leave your comments in the chatbox, after some time, it will be moved to the next page when others also leave their comment there and it's very difficult for people to refer to them...

And sometimes when you leave your comments in the chatbox, sometimes I don't even know which post are you referring to. =)

I know some of the readers oftenly come back to my blog to check on the chatbox to see whether did anyone write anything there or sometimes use it to chat with other readers on the blog. There's conversation going on within the blog is a good thing, but don't because the chatbox is removed you can't chat with other readers on this blog. You still can use the comment box.

Last but not least, I hope that you readers understand what I'm trying to convey here. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment regarding your question and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Have a nice day and God Bless!

Ben The Drummer

[ Continue Reading... ]

SURPRISE... Check Out My New Blog Template

Hey guys, if you're at my blog now you should have noticed that I have changed my blog template again. Maybe some of you might be thinking are you at the wrong blog or got a shock that how come my blog is different. Hahaha... nothing is wrong, it's just that I felt bored of the old blog template so I decided to change it.

If I'm not mistaken, I think this is the 3rd time I change my blog template. I've planned to change it around January but I got caught up with too many things and it was not that important nor urgent to change it. So, drag until this week I found some time and decided to finish up customizing the template.

There are a few reasons why I want to change my blog template. The main reason as you already know I just mentioned that I was bored with the old blue-ish iPhone liked blog template. Don't get me wrong here. The old and the current template has its own unique way of nice, but I prefer the current one over the old template.

I'm still working on the template so you guys might come across some problems or some broken links. If you happen to come across any, please let me know so that I can fix them.

You might notice there are a few things missing, for example the chatbox. I'll explain to you why I took away the chatbox in another post. There are also a few new things and widgets too.

Do let me know whether does my blog take a long time to load up on your browser. For me it loads much faster compared to the old template. Do let me know what do you think.

Last but not least, do leave your comments to let me know what you think about this new template. Whether you like it or not.

Oh yea, please inform me if you come across any problems with the template. Thanks.

[ Continue Reading... ]

How much is your blog worth $$$ ?

Do you still remember I had this "How much is your blog worth" widget at my sidebar? If I'm not mistaken, I think it uses your Technorati ranking to evaluate your blog's value.

If you don't remember how the widget looks like, you can have a look of it below.

My blog is worth $7,903.56.
How much is your blog worth?

Head straight on to "How much is your blog worth" page and check how your blog perform in the evaluation.

After testing out this cool widget, you can let me know how much is your blog worth in the comment box below.

[ Continue Reading... ]

My Blog's Google PageRank Has Increased!!

*Updates Have Been Made*

Hey, yesterday I just noticed that my blog's Google PageRank (PR) has increased to a PageRank (PR) of 1.

Yeah I know some of your PageRanks are already 1 or 2 or maybe 3 right. And I know some of you will be thinking what the heck is this Google PageRank thing right??

So what is this Google PageRank thing about?

According to WebWorkshop.net, PageRank is:

PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page's PageRank is calculated.

PageRank is Google's way of deciding a page's importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determines a page's ranking in the search results. It isn't the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one.

From here on in, we'll occasionally refer to PageRank as "PR".

To learn more about Google PageRank, you can just read more about it on Wikipedia.

You can use the tool below to check your blog's PageRank

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

Hope you enjoyed this post and learned something from this post as well.

God Bless & Take Care !!

- Ben The Drummer

P.S: If you found value in this post, I would appreciate if you can leave a Comment below.

[ Continue Reading... ]

Survey Results...

The results for the survey is final.

I would really like to thank those that took their time to reply me with their comments on the survey and their thoughts on the 3 templates.

You can refer back to the Survey Here.

As you can see, I've already changed to the new template, which is the 1st template among the 3. No doubt that it was the nicest among the 3 and most of the people who replied choose the 1st one too. =)

Before the survey, I was already thinking of changing to that template but I just wanted to see whether others would liked it or not.

Ok... enough of that said, you can see there are alot of changes that have been made, for example...

On the top left, there will be 10 of the most recent post/articles. The right section is for subscribing to my RSS Feed.

What's the purpose for subscribing to my RSS? By subscribing to ones RSS Feed, you will save alot of time by not having to go through those blogs/websites that are not updated.

You can subscribe to my RSS feed in a reader by Clicking Here or on the orange colour looking square box.

The other way to get updates is by entering your valid E-Mail address into the blank box beside the "Subscribe" button. You'll received an E-Mail when I've updated my blog. By this way, you don't need to come back everyday to check for updates.

I'll have another post explaining all about RSS feed. So stay tune for that. =)

Have you noticed at the end of all the previous post has a "Continue Reading" link there? You will have to click on the "Continue Reading" link to read the longer posts.

That's all the changes I've made.

I'll have another update if there is any other changes being made.


P.S: Please inform me if you encounter any problems. Thanks

P.P.S: If you have something to say regarding this post, feel free to write me your comments.

Before I go, I would really like to thank again those that replied me on the previous post. =)


See Ya & God Bless !!

- Ben The Drummer

[ Continue Reading... ]

Survey... Should I Change a New Blog Template or Not??

Hi, today I'll be needing your help to give me some of your opinions whether should I have another blog makeover or just continue on using the current one.

I would really appreciate it if you could help me decide by writing your opinions about this matter in the comment box. By the way, not the chat box on the right sidebar... ok? =)

For now, I have 3 new blog design in mind. Take a look at them...

1.
For this template, I've already finish customizing it. You can go over to http://banditdrummer.blogspot.com to check it out. You can also write me your comments regarding this template and what you think about it. Whether is it nice or not.

2.
For this, I haven't tried it yet. So I won't be a demo page for you to check it out. Please shoot me your comments too.

3.
Sorry again, I do not have a demo page for you guys to see. But, you can write me your comments what you think about it. =)


Among this 3 templates, my favourite one is the first one. If you have not check out the demo page, check it out HEHE.

Ya ya... I know some of you will be thinking, "You too free already izzit? Ok ma your current one, why wanna change?" Ok... for me, I feel kinda bored with my current one already that's why I want to have a change.

Most probably I'll be choosing the 1st one because I like it the most, followed by the 2nd & 3rd one. Yea I know, you may be saying "since I've already made up your mind, what for ask for your opinions "... RIGHT ?

Yes yes, I just want to know what you guys think and I want to have some of your opinions. It's that simple.

P.S: Faster write me your opinions. Oh yea, just to remind you not to write your opinions in the chat box as it will be quite difficult for me to go through ones it goes to the second page when there are a lot of your comments coming through.

What are you waiting for ???

Faster, shoot me your opinions and what you want to say... GO GO GO !!!

See Ya & God Bless !!

- Ben The Drummer

[ Continue Reading... ]

Blogging Sites

Here is a short list of some good blogging sites.

1) Blogger/Blogspot
https://www.blogger.com

2) Wordpress
http://wordpress.com or http://wordpress.org

3) Xanga
http://www.xanga.com

4) Weebly
http://www.weebly.com

5) TypePad
http://www.typepad.com

6) Google Page Creator
http://www.pages.google.com


For those that already have their blog up and running can just continue to use them, unless you want to register for any of the rest to play around.=)

For those that still do not have a blog but wants to start blogging, you can go around testing which one suites you the most. But what I suggest for beginners to use is Blogger, because it's very easy to use.

But for those that likes to customize their blog to their own liking, go ahead and try Weebly. You will be amaze how far you can go to create the blog to your own likings. In the beginning it will be a little complicated, but after playing around for a while, you'll get used to it.

Wordpress is also very good, but be prepared for the more complicated set-up. =)

For Xanga, I've never tried it before so nothing much to say about it. But if you have any experience using Xanga, feel free to leave your comments about it.

For TypePad, you have to pay for it, so it's out for me. Hehe... but they offer a 14 days trial, why not just get the trial and play around with it. =)

Google Page Creator is part of Google's services. So you just need to have a account with Google then you can start using it. I haven't really played around with it yet, so not much to say.


P.S: Hope you learned something here. Pour in your comments if you have any. =)


See Ya & God Bless !!

- Ben The Drummer

[ Continue Reading... ]

Beginners Guide to Blogging

Hi guys, today I'm going to talk about blogging.

Basically a blog is like an online journal. You can digitally record down your ideas, thoughts, opinions or anything for people to read.

Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3's on your blogs.

Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging or podcasting.

Basically a blog contains these features:

Title- the name of your post/article.
Body- this is the content of your post.
Trackback- links from other sites to your blog.
Permalink- the URL for your that particular post/article.
Comments- for readers to post their opinions/comments on your blog.

Bloggers that use any of the blogging sites has an advantage, because it's made up of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.

This is very useful for new blogger and they can start blogging right away. They just have to choose a template provided by the blogging site... and Wahla... you can start blogging.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, music, etc. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events and news.

Nowadays Professors are also using blogs to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught in class. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.

The most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. To express themselves, they use blogging to document their daily struggles in lives, poems, rants, opinions, etc.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogging is popular all over the world and it's a short term for weblog.

There are plenty of famous blogging sites to choose from,such as: Blogger/Blogspot and Wordpress.


P.S: I hope you learned something from here


See Ya & God Bless !!

- Ben The Drummer

[ Continue Reading... ]

New Blog Makeover

Hey guys, finally I've finish with my blog makeover.

There are still some functions that are not in use yet and I need more time to finish it so just be patience la. For example the links on the far top right hand corner - the RSS Feed link I didn't add the full link yet.

I also added a HOME navigation tab at the top, so it'll be easier for people to get back to my home page rather then clicking the back button or entering my home URL again.

One thing I noticed is that the title for the post is a bit out la and I have no clue how to fix it. You'll notice the problem when my title is too long and goes into the second line. It's not very obvious la and it didn't overlap one another, so I'll just let it be la.

If you guys scroll down till the bottom of the page, you'll see Copyright 2008 | .......... Cool right?!?!

And as u guys can see, I've add a chat box so you guys can chat in there or do whatever you want in there... but please no spamming !! =)

One more thing I've added is the iPhone lookalike thingy called MyBlogLog. You guys can just click on the "Add Me On This Sites Community" or just click HERE.

You guys can go create your own community there and invite your friend to join. You can also join other people's community there. IT'S FREE !!


P.S: Please leave me some Comments to let me know what do you think of the new look of my blog. Whether you like it or not?? And last but not least, go to MyBlogLog and create yourself an account then add me as friend la or join my community.


See Ya & God Bless !!

- Ben The Drummer

*Updates:
1) Survey... Should I Change a New Blog Template Or Not?
2) Survey Results
3) My Blog's Google PageRank Has Increased!!
4) SURPRISE... Check Out My New Template

[ Continue Reading... ]

Blog Makeover

Hi guys, I've not been doing any happening stuff lately so nothing much to update. Have been doing my usual stuff.

Did you guys notice any difference about my blog?? I just did some make over on my blog and the most obvious one is the Labels part. Now it looks like a cloud tag. I had to customize the HTML a bit to change it to this form. What's interesting is when under that certain topic, the words on that particular label will increase in size. You can go check it out yourself la. Lazy to explain here.

Oh yea, I also eliminated the navigational toolbar =). This bar was just hanging there and was no use to me, so I just took it away la. I also add the recent comments widget la, so when anytime someone writes a comment, it will appear there. You can get the widget by clicking the Add This Widget To your Blog button.

There are also some other things I changed and added onto my blog. You can go check it out for yourself. This will be the first part of the makeover process. There's more to go.

What will be the next part of the makeover process I shall keep it a secret first. You will notice yourself la if you pay attention to my blog. LOL

P.S: Can you guy let me know what do you think about this makeover in the comment box. I would like to know whether it sucks, average or good or anything that you guys feel.

[ Continue Reading... ]