BasBasBas.com

Tag: website

  • Google Friend Connect

    Still apartment hunting. Quite exhausting and boring at the same time. You have to be ready to rush from apartment to apartment, but sometimes you’re simply waiting for people to contact you to tell you about new available flats.

    So, while I was waiting yesterday, I set up Google Friend Connect, which allows me to directly connect to the community/readers of the blog, but also for you to connect to me, or even each other. Google seems to be rolling out a lot of options for Friend Connect, with which it aims to turn the more static media on the web into social media, or even integrate them with the existing social media, such as Facebook.

    I’m going to activate some of them, for you (and myself) to play around with. First thing I want to experiment with is a wall on which community members can write their messages or even post YouTube videos that might be interesting to me or other people that visit this site. Not sure how/where to integrate it however, since I can’t reduce the width to less than 280 pixels. I’ll be looking at that. For the meantime get connected. Scroll to the Google Friend Connect widget in the left sidebar and join up!

    Bas

  • Downtime

    Last night BasBasBas.com got shut down by Bluehost over performance issues. The site’s back online now, but to prevent future account suspensions without notice in the future, I’m going to be changing the layout of the site to make it more simplistic. Since I’ll be moving to Bulgaria next week and the site’s current layout was mostly geared towards my stay in Istanbul, the shut down came with great timing to motivate me to change the site once again.

    Ulterior goal: to increase the pleasure of the reading experience.

    Sit back and don’t worry too much about the layout for now. It might be a good idea to subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox free of charge of course. 😉

  • Changes

    The last few days my blog has gone through a few changes, mostly because I haven’t been able to come up with good content, so I figured I’d invest my energy differently. Why am I not able to come up with good content? I’ve had a stomach or intestinal flu for about 3 or 4 weeks now and since I’m going to Bulgaria this weekend, I wanted to be better so I decided to actually go to the doctor. The campus doctor’s consult was free of charge, and after describing my stool in detail to the medical student of my age (very weird, not to mention awkward) who then translated it for the doctor, I was prescribed some medicine. I don’t know what’s in this medicine, but woah, my mind’s completely unfocused! I’m curious as to what the medicine actually is (besides very, very cheap compared to Holland!), but in this state I keep forgetting to Google/Wikipedia it once I get to a computer. Nice.

    Anyway, for this reason I’ve been unable to come up with intelligible stories, hence the lack of updates. I’m doing well though, I feel I’m getting better and my classes have started and they’re interesting! Oh, and tomorrow I can finally apply for my residence permit!

    Okay… so what have I changed/updated on my website? And why?

    • I got FeedSmith and transferred my RSS feeds to FeedBurner after reading an article at Rockfuse about messing up your RSS feeds 😉 .  I did this so that I could track my feed subscribers better. I was quite surprised when I found out I had about 36 subscribers, instead of the 15 I expected. I proudly put up my feedreader count at the right and an option for people to subscribe by email. Thanks to you all for subscribing!
    • I put my Entrecard widget to the left sidebar because it loads before the rest of the page. It’s really important to have your widget in the part of the page that loads the fastest, because many droppers just want to drop as fast as possible and it earns you credits to advertise!
    • This freed up space for an “above the fold” banner at the top right side of my page! It’s still rather cheap, so go place your ad now!
    • I put in a cool weather widget so you can see the weather I’m having here!
    • I removed my MyBlogLog widget after reading an alarming post about the type of information they’re releasing (accessible to everyone!) about your blog. Not cool!
    • I added a contact form, which can be reached by navigating to the bottom of the page and finding the contact link.
    • I put the link for announcing my Entrecard topdroppers reward closer to the ‘drop’ button. In case people miss when they click, they’ll see the reward system (and hopefully keep dropping here). Also, they’re more likely to notice the rewarding if they’re just here for a fast drop.
    • I also put the PayPal donation button under the Email subscriber form, because I think people with their attention focused on that part of the page are also more likely to donate. Not that I really expect anyone to donate, but who knows. 😉 A button can’t hurt.
    • That’s about it. I also uploaded a new header image that you’ll see when you visit category pages.
    More Istanbul (and Bulgaria!) adventures very soon! Right here.

  • Entrecard Topdroppers get EC’s!!

    For those of you that are not familiar with Entrecard, click here.

    For all the visitors from Entrecard, I have a special deal for you which I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Add my blog to your daily dropping rounds and get credits! At the end of the month, I will spend 1000 credits on the top 3 droppers.

    Number one gets 500 credits.
    Number two gets 300 credits.
    Number three gets 200 credits.

    So get to dropping on my Entrecard widget and please try to participate on my blog. I have SezWho installed, so it’s yet another way to earn credits… Oh and if you drop, I follow! 🙂

    Happy dropping!

  • Time to get moving!

    Okay, I’ve been procrastinating loooong enough (plus I’ve been ill for a while which really ruined the momentum). It’s time to get this exchange in Istanbul sorted! Firstly, tomorrow I’ll get all the forms fixed so I can deliver them to the partner university in Istanbul, called Yeditepe. This means that I’ve been selecting courses. The courses I plan on following at Yeditepe these fall are:

    • Introduction to Political Science;
    • Democracy in the Global Society;
    • Society, Culture and Communication in the 21st Century;
    • Scope and Social Impact of New Media;
    • Consumer Behaviour;
    • Humanities;
    • Theories of Mass Communication;
    • Corporate Public Relations;
    • Semiotics;
    • Persuasion and Perception.

    Needless to say, I’m very excited! Those that know me well will understand, based just on the list above here and how well it suits me 😉

    Second thing is, the to-do lists are back. Last year they were here as I was preparing for Bulgaria, disturbing my natural laziness, now they’re back. Tomorrow I have an exam, so I better start studying now. I discontinued the ‘Latest Updates’ posts – they’ll now just be placed in the side menu. Besides that, more posts about my life and about going to Turkey: I promise.

    Also, the website is still under construction, but it’s about 80-90% done now 🙂

  • Welcome 😉

    A warm welcome to all new subscribers of the email updates. What I did was I transfered the email notifications from the old domain to the new domain. So I hope you enjoy the continuation of these updates, but have a look at the new site, because there’s a lot you’ve missed!

    If you’re not yet on the mailinglist and want to be, you can do so now. Subscribe here!

    (more…)

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