Easter Egg

There have been rumors and allegations that there was a so-called “easter egg” added to 2.6 early in its development. These rumors and allegations are completely false!

That got me curious… :) So I went on Google to research this further.

Unlocking the easter egg

Apparently what you need to do is after saving a post you scroll down to “Post Revisions” and then click one of the revisions. At that point you should be able to compare a revision with itself (by selecting both left and right radio buttons at the same revision and click “Compare Revisions”). What happens next is pretty cool.

Here is a video that shows you what happens:

Easter Egg in WordPress 2.6 from Len Kutchma on Vimeo.

Easter eggs are always fun :) Have you upgraded your blog (if you’re using WordPress)? It’s always smart to upgrade as soon as possible, not just for the cool new features but also because of security risks.

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I’m not sure what the prize is – or if there is a prize… but if you want I would appreciate it if you could cast a vote my way :) Just click here and select the radio button where it says “My Most Valuable Site” below my site (www.hannesjohnson.com), scroll down and click the button that says “Jetzt abstimmen”. You have until April 24th to vote – but please vote right now while it’s fresh on your mind.

OK, I was checking the site again a little better and it looks like this is a site for a conference in Germany and according to this page the first prize in the business category is 5.000 € and an advertisement in “brand eins” (which I believe is a magazine). 5,000 Euros is about 7,700 USD so that’s quite a lot of money – what are you waiting for: go vote for me! ;)

If I win I will most definitely have a very impressive contest with lots of prizes here on this blog :)

By the way, do you want more contests on this blog? Because a couple of days ago I got a proposition from a guy that wanted to sponsor a contest on this blog. What do you say? More contests? – Let me know in the comments, also let me know if there are any specific contests you are interested in (like, subscribe to the RSS feed to get an entry, solve a puzzle, etc…) and if there are any prizes you prefer (gift certificates, PayPal payment, magazine subscriptions, iPod or something physical, etc…) – also let me know if you voted for me in this contest and I’ll give you featured link here in the sidebar for a month – but only the first 10 (maybe more) to comment [just let me know in the comment what anchor text and URL you want me to use].

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But it’s no surprise that WordPress is the most popular blog system – when I first thought of doing this kind of a list that was my guess.

Quick reader’s poll: Should I create a specific category for these micro posts?

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So I’m going to try a new trick – write really short blog posts. Inspired by the concept of microblogging I think I might be more willing to write short blog posts – rather than having to worry about writing insightful 1000+ words blog posts with research, graphs and the whole shabang ;)

Well, in microblogging a post can be anywhere from one sentence (with maybe a link or two) to a few paragraphs. So it’s pretty flexible. These short posts, or microposts, should take less than 30 minutes to write – well, they should probably take less than 5 minutes but you shouldn’t have to worry about time restraints. The idea is to just get the idea out there as quickly as possible – it doesn’t even have to be grammatically correct, you can just edit the typos later on – when your visitors point them out ;)

But sometimes when you start out writing a micropost you might get more and more ideas while writing and you’ll be inspired to write a full-length post – and that’s definitely a good thing :)

It might be appropriate to set up Asides to handle these microposts – to separate them from the “real” posts. I might also consider using any of the microblogging services out there to write short posts (and maybe import them into this blog).

The only problem with short posts like that is that it’s not so easy to add in-content AdSense ads when the content is only 2 sentences ;)

This post is kind of a micropost – I wrote it fairly quickly (although it took more than 5 minutes) and only read it over once. What do you think – is this a short post or a normal post? Maybe it’s just somewhere in the middle…

What do you think of the concept of microblogging? Do you think it could help you blog more frequently (which means more content on your blog = better chance of ranking in the search engines for cool keywords)? Are you going to try writing short posts every now and then? Oh, yeah, of course – even though I’m going to try writing more short posts it doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing full-length posts that I put a lot of work in :)

Also, in short posts I might not explain everything in detail – so that’s an excellent opportunity for the readers to post comments and ask questions.

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Saman has an interesting post about how you can try Service Pack 3 for Windows XP before it’s officially released – but I would be very careful if you decide to try it, you have to know exactly what you’re doing and be prepared for your computer to crash. I have Windows XP on my laptop and like Saman I hope SP3 brings some new and cool features. One thing I learned while reading this post is that Windows Key+Pause/Break gives you the System Properties – always fun to learn new shortcuts :)

Saman also talked about an interesting discovery: a black theme for Windows XP. I’ll have to take a look at that – could be a nice change from the default blue one. He also recently blogged about a green operating system – being green (protecting the earth) is very “in” right now so this OS might get popular.

Congratulations to Saman – he managed to be on the top commentators list 3 times in a row. That’s why he’s getting 3 links ;)

Bobby Revell has a very thorough article with some nice tips on how to live a healthy life. We all want to live longer, right? :) Cutting down on sugar and exercising more can really help increase your energy – it did for me.

Chris blogged about a very cool trick that you can use to have a little fun with any website you want (that has a few images).

Every Day Fiction – as you might know from the previous top commentators post – has a collection of short stories. This one: I take it back is very cool – it’s very descriptive and it’s almost like watching a movie. Good job John Ritchie.

Angie found a way to get rid of her sinus headaches. I’m sure a lot of people get sinus headaches – or at least some sort of headaches – so this might be something that’s worth a shot.

But what do the rest of the readers say – do you like these “top commentators” posts? Hopefully you find at least some of it useful or entertaining.

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Etienne has an interesting list covering the recent Google PageRank shakeup. A few A-list bloggers saw their PageRank drop considerably – which caused quite a buzz in the blogosphere. But now it looks like Google stuck by their “don’t be evil” philosophy and gave the PageRank back to those that deserved it.

Rosie over at SEO Reloaded has a nice brief description of what SEO is. Internet marketers use a lot of acronyms and not everybody knows what SEO is :) Well, it stands for Search Engine Optimization – check Rosie’s post for more details.

Every Day Fiction has a collection of short stories. Behind The Curtain is a very short story – but very chilling, it works even though it’s so short – I definitely want to know more :) Check out the other stories – like Shadows, another horror story. I think this is an excellent idea – short stories that people can read in just a few minutes (during their lunch, coffee break or whatever).

It looks like I’m not the only one that doesn’t post too frequently ;) I didn’t find many recent posts by John Bennett over at ThingsThatAreFun.com – But he has a post about a few fun things you can do at work – it’s always fun to mix things up a bit. We actually have “office Olympics” where I work where each department competes in different categories :)

Saman has a fun post about Chuck Norris facts. It’s a while since a saw this first but it always cracks me up. Although, I prefer Jack Bauer facts (I’m a huge 24 fan). A little side note: “saman” actually means “together” in Icelandic ;)

Well, there you have it. Thanks for all the comments! :)
OK, quick reader poll – What topics would you like me to blog about? It can be anything… just let me know – either by commenting on this post or through the contact form.

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Just ignore the fact that I’m a month late with the July list ;)

Samanathon has a cool list of control panel shortcuts. I use a lot of shortcuts to work faster on the computer and I frequently use [WinKey]+[R] to run all kind of programs (like: calc, winword, notepad, mspaint…).

Bobby Revell talks about how having a blog has helped change his life. There are so many reasons why you would want to start a blog – getting new friends can be one of them.

Angie gives a great example in her post What I Do To Give Back on how you can get traffic from the search engines just by creating a free resource and regularly adding content to it.

ladyinfluence blogs about how you can make money with your photos. Interesting… but I would be careful with these kind of services – make sure you’re not giving away your copyright (or selling it for pennies).

How about you – do you do anything to give back to your readers?

Keywords: shortcuts, windows, search engine traffic, free resource, top commentators, make money

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More details after the jump.

*** Warning, spoilers ***
Have you watched the video? OK, then you know that it was Felista from Royal Tours Africa that won this contest. I just contacted Felista and I’ll probably post a review in a few days.

Like I said in the video I got 32 entries – 4 people posted on their blog about this contest and got 5 entries each. When I started the contest 249 members had made this blog a favorite and now it stands at 275 – which ranks me at #87. Thanks to everybody that entered my contest – I’ll definitely have another contest soon. One thing I noticed is that the contest started a little slow – and I had to go and promote it a little bit to get a few more entries… So, if you are thinking about having your own contest on your blog you might want to have that in mind – Just go contact some of your blog buddies and anybody you think would be interested in entering your contest.

Talking about contests… I want to use the opportunity to enter Gary Lee’s iPhone contest. Gary has a cool blog about internet marketing and he is going to give away a free iPhone. He’s doing this to promote his new project about golf equipment and his partner’s site that is a online coupon code blog. Very clever… there’s been a lot of buzz around the iPhone so a lot of people want to enter. That’s another trick to a successful contest – have a very valuable prize.

Do you like contests? I want to have another contest soon and I’m open for ideas – do you have any suggestions regarding the rules/requirements and/or prizes?

Keywords: technorati, contests, winner, top 100, youtube, promote, gary lee, iphone

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I like it when people comment on my blog. When people leave comments on blog posts I’m much more motivated to write more posts. It’s also great to get feedback from readers so you know if you’re doing something right. That’s why I think it’s important to give something back to those that keep this blog alive – the top commentators. Like I did last month and the month before I’m going to point you to a few interesting blog posts from last month’s most active readers.

But before we go check out some great blog posts I just wanted to remind everybody that my Technorati contest is still running – and entering can be as easy as leaving a comment with your Technorati username on this post (if you’ve already added my blog to your Technorati favorites). For a single comment you could win a review on this blog + $25 sent to your PayPal account. A review on this blog could bring you some nice traffic (both from visitors clicking on your link in the review as well as the added SEO boost you get from this PageRank 4 blog). You will also receive:

• SEO tips to help you rank higher in the search engines
• Design tips to improve usability to make people stay longer on your site
• Tips on monetization so you’ll earn more with your website
• …and anything else I think can help improve your website

Right now I have 26 entries – so, if you add me to your Technorati favorites (and leave a comment) + post about this contest on your blog you’ll have a 6/32 (which is about 19%) chance of winning. But there are only a couple of days left – so make sure to enter now.

Well, here way go – some interesting posts from last month’s top commentators:

karenlim posted a video of a speech that Steve Jobs gave to Stanford graduates. Some good tips there.

Natron reminds us of the importance of good customer service. How you deal with customers can often make or break your business. Having excellent customer service will definitely help increase “word of mouth” traffic.

harleyblues posted some cool Beatles videos.

Benjamin has some pictures from his local 7-11 that was turned into a Kwik E Mart. Brilliant marketing trick to promote the new Simpsons movie (which is very funny by the way).

Angie talks about the joy of blogging and the reason some people start blogging.

MoneyNing talks about a great story about a couple that saved for their dream home by just cutting out the unnecessary stuff in their lives. If you really want something you usually have to make some sacrifices.

Steven posts some tips for pulling an all-nighter. I’ve used some of these tricks – going out for a walk can often help you make it for a few more hours.

Ryan blogged about something that all Google AdSense publishers fear: getting their AdSense account disabled.

Ed makes a very interesting point: RSS Is Most Valuable For Infrequently Updated Feeds. That’s why you should definitely subscribe to my RSS feed ;)

You might have noticed that I’ve decreased the “Top Commentators” list in the sidebar from 10 to 5. I did this to make it a little more competitive and add more focus to the top 5 ;) But I might change this back to top 10 when I start blogging more frequently and/or when people start commenting even more.

Keywords: contests, videos, commentators, Technorati, PayPal, SEO, review, links, finance, music, word of mouth, marketing, google, adsense, RSS

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