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If you are thinking of starting your own blog or have just started it, I would recommend that you download and read the free eBook, Make Money Blogging, by Daniel Scocco.

Daniel runs a successful and a very helpful blog “DailyBlogTips” and is quite well know among the bloggers. In this free eBook Daniel laid out a well written plan on how to get started in blogging universe.

In the introductory chapter he explains the need of a domain name and the virtues of using WordPress platform.

In the next couple of chapters Daniel lists important steps a new blogger should take to become a successful blogger. He explains how to choose a niche for your blog, how to write killer articles and how to attract and retain more visitors.
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If you need to search for a phrase or a string in a text file Java regular expression is the easiest way to accomplish this task. Here is a simple example that demonstrates how you can use Java regular expression to find a string or a phrase in a text file.
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Eclipse is my favorite Java IDE. To manage projects Eclipse uses ‘Workspaces’. Workspace is basically a folder on your disk where your project files are stored. To work on a project you load its workspace in Eclipse. Eclipse remembers the workspaces you worked on previously. A drop down list of all (configurable) previous workspaces is displayed when you want to switch workspace. This is pretty good except for one little annoyance. Eclipse presents all previous workspaces even if you have deleted the project folder from the disk. All those deleted workspaces only clutter the list. But there is a very easy way to clean up the list. All you have to do is to edit org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs file.

This file is located under configuration/.setting directory under your eclipse installation directory. For e.g. if you have Eclipse installed under C:\ides\eclipse the file will be under C:\ides\eclipse\configuration\.settings.
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For most web developers, programmers and bloggers taking screenshots is quite a common task. Sometimes you need the screenshot for your next post or article or just to send it to your tech help desk to troubleshoot a problem.

I have been using Snagit for several years and I really like the features it offers and its intuitive interface. Snagit is not a freeware, last I checked it costs about $50. But don’t worry there are quite a few alternatives to Snagit that offer similar features for free. Following are four free screen capturing software that I think are worthy substitutes for any commercial software in this category. More

One of the first blogging tips blogs I started following was ProBlogger. Run by Darren, this blog offers incredible tips to new and experienced bloggers. I still follow Problogger because everyday I get some more useful tips about blogging.
In 2005 and 2007 offered a 31-day series on how to become a better blogger. This year 31 Days to Build a Better Blog session will begin on April 1 April 6. It is free for any blogger who is interested in learning from a successful blogger on how to become a better blogger.
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I have been using Entrecard for some time now. About 10% of the visitors come to my blog through Entrecard. Recently Entrecard launched a new service called Marketplace. Entrecard members can buy and sell their services in exchange of Entrecard credits.
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I am opening my blog to advertisements. I have had Google AdSense ad units for some time on my website, and now I think is the appropriate time to solicit ads directly from advertisers. While I am working on getting my marketing arm in place, I thought it will be a good idea to let follow bloggers and website owners to advertise on my blog for free for a limited time. I am offering 3 125×125 ad spots on the right side of the blog.
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Have you ever wondered how when you “follow” certain Twitter users, you get an immediate thank you email from them? Some of them may even start following you immediately. After I received about half a dozen such quick emails thanking me for following some users, I started thinking that there must be a service that auto responds whenever a person starts following a Twitter user. More

My post about Java regular expression gets a lot of hits daily. Someone commented that the regular expression I included in that post does not block certain invalid email addresses. So I updated the Java regular expression to validate email address. I am pretty sure that the following Java regular expression will validate any email address.

"^[\\w\\-]([\\.\\w])+[\\w]+@([\\w\\-]+\\.)+[A-Z]{2,4}$";

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One of the changes in WordPress 2.7 release is the disappearance of page id column from the admin console. As far as I know, currently there is no way to display the page id column.
Page ids can be used to exclude or arrange links to the pages in the navigation menu.
I use page id to exclude certain pages from appearing in my navigation menu.

So, without the convenient page id column how do you determine the page id for a particular page?

There are some plugins available that add the page id column back to your admin console.
But there is a simple way to determine the page id without installing any plugin.
Here is what you need to do to find the id of any page. More