If you’re depend solely on your web host to do your daily backups, you are risking your web site’s very existence. Most web hosts only keep your web site backups for a day. This practice seems fine most of the time. What I am afraid of is when an inept web host that does not discover a problem with their web server within 24 hours of your last working web site backup. When they finally discover the problem, they may only be able to restore a corrupt web site backup because of their daily backup policy. An event like this may destroy your web site if you do not backup your web site files to your own computer or to a remote server.

This happened to me more than once and lucky for me I do daily MySQL database backups and FTP synchronization backups. I have tested a lot of MySQL database backup scripts and I found mySqlDump Database Backup to work best for me. I use multiple Cron jobs to schedule all my database backups. The output of the script is a “gz” file, which is similar to a zip file. I had to edit the source code of this script to prevent it from deleting the previous day’s backups.

Now that I have daily backups of my databases on my web server, I run FTP Voyager every night to download all the database backup files to my computer. FTP Voyager has a scheduler program that allows me to specify which folders of my web site I would like to synchronize with the folders on my computer. I usually select the “upload folders” and database backup folders to be synchronized to get the latest files uploaded by my visitors or myself downloaded to my computer.

You may use other tools to get the job done but I highly recommend a more sophisticated FTP program like FTP Voyager because it allows you to schedule downloads. Setting this daily backup regime may take some work but it may very well save your web site and your business.

Tagged As: database-backup, FTP-Voyager, MySQL

Categories: Web Development | 3 Comments »

I received an email from Chris Lee of Keywords Analyzer on 31 January. This is what he said in the email.

I hope I find you well and 2007 has got off to a good start.

I am writing to give you a heads-up about the situation regarding the Overture Keyword Tool.

It’s early days yet, and we are still checking, but it is looking likely now that the tool is no longer going to be supported by Yahoo.

As you know, in Keywords Analyzer, Overture is one of the sources of data, and its great advantage for users has been that it is free.

So - what this means.

Well - no doubt about it - this will turn the keyword research market on its head. But that is the way of the world, and we will have to look forward from here.

We are actively and urgently evaluating other free sources of data that we may or may not be able to use in conjunction with Keywords Analyzer. The purpose of this email is to
let you know that we know about it, and are actively working on solutions. If we can find a practical and reliable free source for you, we will do so.

We are planning to release Version 6 shortly in any event, and will keep you posted as to developments.

In the meantime, you could use Keyword Discovery directly from Keywords Analyzer, and very shortly Wordtracker API will be implemented as well.

If we can keep it free, we will - but it could also mean the days of free research sources are over.

But please be assured that whatever the outcome, we will continue development and add more features that nobody else has even thought of.

In any event - We will keep you posted.

All the best

Chris Lee

What this means is the Overture Suggestion Tool may not work in the near future and all the keyword research software that use it will be next to useless.

Tagged As: keywords-analyzer, overture

Categories: Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

I read the book, “The Millionaire Code: 16 Paths To Wealth Building” early last year. I saw this book at my local book stores for at least one or two years but I was too stingy to buy it because it was in a hard cover edition. It is a decision that I would live to regret because if I bought this book 2 years ago (instead of being a cheapskate by ordering for 50% of my local retail prices on eBay last year), my life would be very different. I would not have went into certain business opportunities that were never going to suit me well and I would probably have entered the right business opportunity and make loads more money and be so much happier.

The Millionaire Code helps you identify your personality type. There are four letters that will make up your distinct personality.

• Extrovert or Introvert (E or I)
• Sensor or Intuitive (S or I)
• Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
• Judging or Perceiving (J or P)

I was reminded of my personality type, INTJ, when my friend called me up just now for a chat. He shared details of his job with me on how he networks with lots of prominent people in different industries and how he is building up his negotiation skills, sales skills and stuff extroverts are very good at. He asked if I would be interested in the conference business and I told him it won’t work for me if I did something like that.

We both agreed that one of my weaknesses is my cold and aloof nature. He said my lack of networking will be the cause of my downfall. I disagreed with him because we do not have similar paths to make our money and my path does not require me to network as widely as he does. I can’t make money his way and he can’t make money my way.

If you put him and me in the same company and go through the exact same sales training, I would put my money on him outselling me by ten times or more. His personality is more suitable for a sales profession and if I try to be a salesperson, I would be a mediocre or at best, an average one. In fact, I once joined an MLM company about 4 years ago and I remember my upline telling me I need to “change” and she gave me a ton of examples of introverted people like me who made it big.

There are many things that I can change about myself. I can change the way I think and the way I live but if you ask me to change my personality, I don’t think it’s possible. Even if I tried very hard to change it, I would feel extremely unhappy. It is no wonder I dropped out of the MLM company within a year because I simply wasn’t a good salesperson. Even if I did stay on and try my best, I do not think I have what it takes to go all the way to the top. It is not impossible but chances are I would be average in that profession and that bothers me. Why be mediocre or average in one profession when you can be outstanding in another?

When I started reading those personal development books I came across statements like:

• “You can do anything you set your mind on”
• “You should aim for the stars and even if you miss, you’ll land on the moon”

I don’t really believe in the first statement any more. Why? Just watch the American Idol auditions… A lot of the contestants think they have what it takes to be an American Idol winner and be a successful singer. But seriously, some of them sing like ducks, dress like morons and are too many pounds overweight. We need to get real and look at our basic talents, strengths and weaknesses as human beings and select the right path that suits us best.

The second statement is kind of funny to me. It sounds great to think and aim big. I would rather aim at the moon because people have landed on the moon and not on a star. My chances of succeeding will be far greater therefore I would aim at the moon instead. I remember when I was in the army, my M16 rifle had an effective range of 200m. The bullets can actually travel over 2km if I remember correctly but it is most effective at 200m or less. Your chances of missing the target will be higher if you aim too far than what the rifle and the bullet can effectively hit. Why aim at a target that is so hard to hit when you can hit something easier?

I am not being negative, I am just being honest and real. I was doing some spring cleaning at home when I saw some of my old tapes, CDs and books by some motivation gurus and I think I should sell most of them on eBay to clear some space in my cupboard. Some of the things they say and write are outright lies but we buy into them because it gives us a sense of hope and that SELLS really well. I only have one or two people on my list that I can listen to without feeling stupid and one of them is Larry Winget and you should check him out.

Bottom line is, honour your personality, know your strengths and weaknesses, work on the basic talents you have been given, choose a path that suits you best and make the best of it. I wish I understood this earlier as I feel I have wasted the past two or three years of my life working on things that weren’t making the most of my strengths.

Tagged As: INTJ, Personality-Type

Categories: Vincent's Updates | 2 Comments »

Some time between the last week of January to the first 2 weeks of February, my ex web server was hacked. Somehow, a hacker got into my server and decided to use my server to attack another server. My ex web host, ServInt, could not find out who did it or how they did it. Neither could I do anything about it… Lucky for me, the hacker did not seem interested in what I had on my web server as my files were left intact.

It took an extraordinarily long time for ServInt to revive my web server. I believe they were too sloppy dealing with this issue and I got very fed up when they did not answer my technical support queries over one of the weekends. Their sales director later admitted their technical support should have done more to help my situation after I decided to move out of their servers. It was a very sad end to my 1.5 years at ServInt.

I don’t really want to reveal more information about this unfortunate incident because I still believe ServInt is one of the best VPS web hosting companies out there. The problem with them and with a lot of companies in the world is their inflexible company policies. Their support staff were trained to do exactly the way they were told to do and sometimes it can be a problem. Once in a while, something bad will happen to your web server. I had a hard disk crash once and they waived one month from my hosting fees so that was compensated. No complaints about that. For other errors, they seem to take their own sweet time to fix them.

For example, I used to get frequent mail server errors and it prevented me from receiving and sending emails from all of my email accounts. I would email the technical support help desk informing them of this problem and ask them to maybe restart the mail service or find a way to fix it. What usually happens is one of their support staff will reply to me asking for one of my email address’ username and password to test if the mail server is really down. I hate it when this happens because I already told them ALL of them do not work so why do they have to ask me to reveal one of my email account information? Another common situation I received was when my MySQL database service goes down. I used to email them to tell them that the database on XYZ.com is down. What do they do? They reply to me asking for the exact database name. They have access to the web servers and if you look at XYZ.com, you should be able to see that there is only one database. Why do they have to waste their time and mine by emailing me to ask for the database name? I am not sure if I am the only person on this planet that feels irritated. Situations like these really tick me off but they keep doing because it’s their company’s policy.

Their company policy wants them to confirm their customer’s queries at the expense of common sense and a pleasant experience for the customer. Simple tasks that can be solved in one step have now been complicated to two or more steps.

Frankly, my new web host seems to have similar problems with their customer service. If you know of a good web host that does not have irritating customer service, please let me know. I believe it is worth paying more to get that extra piece of mind and save some precious time emailing back and forth dealing with inflexible robotic people like that.

The positive thing that came out of this experience is I know do not take security for granted. You never know when someone might hack into your system. Just recently, WordPress.org was hacked they had to release an emergency update because WordPress 2.1.1 was hacked by a hacker. If it can happen to WordPress.org, it can happen to me and you.

Tagged As: good-web-host, hack, servint, web-host, web-hosting

Categories: Blog Updates | No Comments »