Tune up your blog in 31 days!

Hey folks, ‘ProBlogger.net‘ is running a 31 day project that’s called: “31 Days to Build a Better Blog“. Starting from April 1st, the idea is to implement improvements every day until May 1st.

The 31 day project will run in a simple manner. Users can subscribe to the posts via email and every day you’ll get the posts in your inbox – that’ll have two aspects: a teaching component and a practical component (task/homework).

ProBlogger is ranked among top-50 blogs that earns a lot through internet today. Let me share a bit from the AdSense blog who interviewed Darren Rowse over AdSense optimization:

October 4, 2003 is a date I’ll never forget – that was a day that my life changed. It was the day that I discovered AdSense and added it to my very first blog. I added that first advertisement to my blog on a whim, with what I thought was the lofty dream that I might be able to pay for my blogs hosting costs. Over 5 years later, those little text ads have paid my mortgage, fed my family, and enabled me to move my blogging from a hobby, to a part time job, to a full time job and beyond.

It’s not been an ‘overnight success’ by any means but as I’ve learned to use it, AdSense has been one of my highest online income streams.

Although this project is designed for beginners but many tasks will be relevant to intermediate as well as advance bloggers. I have myself subscribed to this project and will try my best to do a summary post once it’s over!

People I admire..

A new habit that I adopted in the past few years is ‘blogging’. I have been reading several blogs, stories from successful people around, learning from mistakes of experienced entrepreneurs, and just like all other people – I also have a list of people who I ‘admire‘ for their healthy contribution in my life. So I thought to share the list of people who helped me become what I am today.

After the limitless support of my family members comes the list of following people:

- Ra[y]za

Muhammad Raza, my school buddy – I was in 8th grade when we became friends and after buying my new PC, we used to share our stories about Need for Speed 3. Raza always used to crack down things, dig them to the deepest. We were once sharing some files for NFS when Raza made a webpage and hosted the file. Later, during lunch hours I asked if it’s possible to make a website and that hour marked the beginning of my web designing era. It was really fun to design personal home pages back in 2000 (I still have one hosted at: http://coolpoint.20m.com). He always helped me in picking up basic html concepts, file/hosting issues etc. And after that, he gave me a vision about web layouts and since then I’ve designed more than thousands of them! Thanks bro!

- TBT

Talha bin Tariq was a 3rd year student at my university when I was a fresher. Fortunately I got a chance to design an illustration for Graduate Profile 2004 and after seeing it he asked me to show him the rest of my portfolio (in Lab-1 of FAST-NU). He was the first person who encouraged me a lot and helped me to discover more in gfx. I was also offered to design illustrations for Online 17th and even after producing not-so-good results; he appreciated me and got the best out of me. I still remember that how with few quick-clicks in Photoshop, TBT used to create impressive outputs! His good quality knowledge about core, amazing after-effects on images and friendly behavior always made me enjoy his company =) There are few extra-ordinary students among each batch, and he was MashAllah one of them. Talha is now a Software Engg. at Microsoft and you can view his complete profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/talhatariq

- AhsanQ

Ahsan Qamar, my group member; my teacher – the one person who pulled me out of the failure curve and helped me to see the potential inside! I really had a poor start at university, although I had interest in web designing and development but never scored well in my exams. I always had a lazy attitude towards my assignments. But this one person dragged me out of darkness and helped me cover all the knowledge that I missed in classrooms. I still remember the Data Structure assignment nights spent at his place which really helped me to get a good grip on programming. Ahsan always used to understand things very quickly, remember each and every concept read just once, and program things in a very efficient manner – MashAllah! Most of the time when we had study sessions, Ahsan took the lead (with Shoaib Hafeez on support ). Today, I feel blessed having such friends, and the experience of failing and then going up really teaches you the importance of success, and this lesson one can not grasp easily by succeeding in one go. Ahsan Qamar recently flew back to his hometown (Rawalpindi) and will be starting his new job this week InshAllah. I’ll really miss him around!

- Asad

Asad Siddiqi, my mentor – yet another senior at FAST-NU but I got to know him after I graduated. I once added him for some freelance project on my IM and today, I chat with him just like my any other friend. During night-shifts at TeraData, I used chat with him and share recent happenings. While seeking new jobs, I used to consult him and he always gave me healthy advices. Although he is currently in NCR, USA but he had good knowledge about local software houses, their products and trends. And he really played a major role in helping me switch my job, in switching to a better place!

- Ammar

Syed Ammar Faheem, the little kid – committee interviews were on the go (during my final year) and I got a chance to interview this kid, both for ‘The Webmasters’ and ‘Interface’. Ammar used to manage PakMarkaz.net, so I visited the site and the colors didn’t appeal me much. Some mishap happened and I proposed not to induct this kid in both committees. But later on, we got him on board and the kid started to prove himself. We’ve worked together in Procom, Interface and even studied together during my last semester at university. And this little kid (not so little now ) is responsible for this space that I hold on the web – yes, my blog! Ammar was the one who pushed me to start blogging although I was reluctant to do so and always used to think: what’s the use?! But after starting it I realized the benefits it holds.  He has been selected as the President of Procom 2009 – proud of you kid! And I am really a fan of the ‘aggressive’ content writing he does.

(and the last one on my list is..)

- STUPEFY

Abdul Basit, just like my elder brother, and a business partner – it was the 1st semester, our group was sitting outside in the lawn (at FAST-NU) when I had a chance to chit chat with this geeky fellow. And our minds clicked on one thing that was “Flixin.tk”, a resource for IPT assignments. Much has happened until now and we’ve spent almost 6 years together. One thing not-so-immediately-noticeable about Basit is, “he is really soft-hearted” and he even agreed to that while we were practicing for MBA interview (5 good things about you) ; ) He always has wise opinion about things, better understanding of issues in life and really takes good care of things and people around! We’ve been running a venture since 1 year now Alhamdulillah and it is really fun working together. Basit has been always interested in core stuff and at times I feel too relaxed to even bother what’s happening on the backend. I believe not every friend of yours can become a business partner but I’m glad that we’ve been able to keep things separate both for our professional as well as friendly lives!

Before I wrap up this note, I would like to mention names of few more people who helped me to grab expertise in PHP/MySQL – Ammar Rafiq, Asim Imtiaz and Fahim Ilyas.

“A student never forgets an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration.” ~ William Lyon Phelps

Connect2Pk.com reviewed at KillerStartups.com!

Few weeks back, I submitted our little venture Connect2Pk on KillerStartups for a review. I am a regular follower of KS but during past couple of weeks, I couldn’t follow up all the feeds due to my busy schedule at work. Luckily, I was Googling ‘Connect2Pk’ and some other keywords yesterday and I came across this review that was posted 24 days ago.

Global recession did make us worried but this little venture is still progressing well Alhamdulilllah, much beyond our expectations. We’ve hit 17,000 users during last year and we are really looking forward for much more in the upcoming months! It was really encouraging to find Connect2Pk featured at KillerStartups.

You can see the review at: http://www.killerstartups.com/Site-Reviews/connect2pk-com-free-voice-calls-from-pakistan ..and don’t forget to vote for the startup!