WP Web Designer has come up with a list of its own compiling various Webhosting Sites and ranking them according to a strict criteria. This criteria takes into consideration the price, server uptime, reliability, ease-of-use, control panel and customer support. These are indeed factors you should watch out for before deciding on a webhost.

I’m happy to see that Dreamhost is on the list. I have been with Dreamhost since 1997. My relationship with them has had its ups and downs. Despite my constant bickering, they have been continuously providing me excellent customer service and that is why I have stuck it out with them ever since. Dreamhost provides many levels of webhosting packages depending on your needs. They have shared webhosting that is perfect for beginners and bloggers. They also have Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and Dedicated Servers for sites requiring serious amounts of disk space and bandwidth. I signed up for their VPS service, because some of my sites were beginning to get a lot of traffic that a shared account could no longer handle. They have a neat feature in the control panel that allows me to control the amount of bandwidth I only need, so I pay only what I consume. Pretty cool eh? Aside from Dreamhost I recommend Bluehost and Hostmonster. Be sure to check out WP Web Designer for credible webhosting reviews and ratings.

Best10Webhosting.ca is a great resource in deciding what is the best webhosting providers in Canada that suits the needs of your personal or business website. Well, you may ask, why Canada? The web hosting industry in Canada is shaking up the web hosting industry with its recent advances in reliability, customer service and technology, giving their American counterparts a run for their money. My webhosts, Dreamhost, Media Temple and A Small Orange, are all based in the United States, but I have heard many good things about Canadian webhosts Hostmonster and Bluehost as well. Many of my friends are in fact hosted on Bluehost and are very happy with them. It is not to say that one is better than the other, but it may be something to consider.

On Best10Webhosting.ca, you can see that details of each webhost such as pricing, disk space, bandwidth, reliability and speed are provided in a clean, easy-to-read interface. At the end of each row is an overall score of the webhost that is based on customer reviews and other critical factors like ease-of-use, uptime, support, and cost. Also provided is a link pointing to actual reviews from users. I highly recommend Best10Webhosting.ca for anyone wanting credible reviews and ratings to help them make sound decisions in picking the perfect webhost.

If I wanted to invest in Philippine stocks, the Philippine Stock Exchange website is an excellent starting point for newbie investors like me. The site provides weekly reports on exchange activity, analysis and commentary and spot rates on foreign exchange and index/sectoral averages. It also suggests reputable online brokers to help you start building your portfolio. Reading a book by Ken Fisher or this Fisher Investments article can be of great help too.

My dad’s been an active investor in stocks for more than ten years and saw some success before the financial crisis struck. He has gotten back in the game, but is still kicking himself for not buying those coveted Google stocks when I told him to do so. I guess his stock broker was not doing his job properly. Me, well, I’m just a guy who happens to read a lot of news, and perhaps one day become his father’s financial adviser.

In lieu of my previous blog post, Awesome Business Card Ideas, I’d like to start a contest that’ll challenge your creativity and craftsmanship. Not many bloggers, including I, have their own business cards ready when the situation calls for it. Why is it important? The gesture of handing out a business card imparts professionalism and courtesy. It shows that you’re serious about what you do, and you want to leave that impression on the person you’re giving it to. The person may or may not keep the card, but if it looks fantastic, there is a big change that he will.

The challenge of this contest is not to create just a business card. I want a business card that tells a story — your story as a blogger. No, I don’t want your autobiography printed on the card. Be creative! Use colors, paint, textile, cement, samurais and stardust. Whatever it takes, I want it to be original and kick-ass! Look around for inspiration. Google is your friend

What’s at stake:

1. Fame… and
2. Fortune… the winner receives $100 or peso equivalent at prevailing rate.
3. Link love… winner gets a link on my sidebar for 6 months and a blog post featuring the winning business card design. First and second runners-up also get links in the blog post.

The rules:

1. This contest is open to all active Filipino bloggers or bloggers of any nationality residing in the Philippines.
2. The blogger must create, design and print actual business cards to qualify.
3. The blogger must submit two (2) photographs of the business cards, printed and cut, in quantities of five and different angles. (send to andrew at alleba dot com)
4. The blogger must submit corresponding PSD or AI files. (send to andrew at alleba dot com)
5. The blogger may submit up to three entries.
6. For each entry, the blogger is required to write one blog post containing the photograph of the final product and a link back to Alleba Blog (http://www.alleba.com/blog/). The blogger must then leave a comment below containing the URL of the blog post.
7. For more chances of winning, follow me on Twitter (@andrew_ds). I’ll be raffling off $25 to two random followers who hollers this line at me: “I want $25, @andrew_ds!”.
8. You have 21 days to make your submissions. That’s March 24, 2011!
8. All winners will be announced on March 27, 2011.

Good luck!

This one, by Jenni Mattson, features cutout lock picks. Cool!

Lewis Glaser used a paper bag and a splash of watercolor to come up with this ingenious design.

Dan Ross’s business card not only is, well, a business card, but transforms into a toy car!


Autobots, transform!

Joe Schumbat, of Actual Size Creative, also implemented a cutout on his card.

Yuka Suzuki, a hair and makeup artist, cleverly used hair pins on her business card. Very functional!

Anja Osterwalder added a perforated line on her business card to achieve a “ticket stub” feel.

The debossed/embossed logo on the left side of Kenny Goldstein’s card really appealed to me.

Nancy Levine’s business card works both ways: it provides her contact information and showcases her photograph at the back.

Voderman Photography’s business card design is bold and smart.

I love the irony of this one.

The use of plastic and paper makes this business card a stand out. You can easily replicate this with transparency (or acetate) and craft paper. Simply print your contact information on an inch thick of paper, cut it out and glue it around the pre-cut transparency.

This one shows that your business card can either make or break you. In this case, the logo illustrations succeed in creating a brand awareness for Chef Burger, and add a bit of quirkiness to the overall design. I like this one a lot!

Strive’s business is innovative such that it employs two layers of paper attached to each other. The top layer I’m guessing is parchment paper embossed with the Strive logo, and underneath one will find the contact information printed.

Elixir Design’s business card includes all team members’ names, but the owner’s name is highlighted (this case it’s Kyle Pierce’s). The card looks as if part of the back was torn off, but actually the card was dipped in watercolor, creating a cool rugged effect.

Front view of Elixir Design’s card.

Smith’s Double Entendre plays on the Double Mint chewing gum design. The actual business card is wrapped inside.

This guy uses a folding template for his card. While folded, it shows his name, ‘Scott’. When opened, his surname, ‘Ott’ remains.

These are some ideas you can use as inspiration for your own business card. With the right skills and materials, I bet you can come up with something just as awesome. If you’re iffy about that, check out 123print.com for your printing needs.

Hey, how about a cool new plugin to kick off the month of February?

I’ve been working closely with the Piclyf team to come up with a fast and simple plugin that allows their users to display their picture streams on their WordPress-powered blogs. Many have been clamoring for it… so here it is! It’s so easy to use. All you need to do is enter your username, activate the widget and kaboom! Your sidebar had just become 10x more awesome.

Let’s get serious…

The Piclyf plugin allows you to display your picture stream from Piclyf.com via a sidebar or footer widget. Options for username and number of thumbnails are customizable in the admin panel.

Installation

1. Download the plugin from http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/piclyf.zip
2. Unzip the archive ‘piclyf.zip’ to a local folder on your computer.
3. Upload the folder ‘piclyf’ and its contents to your blog’s plugin folder (root/wp-content/plugins) using FTP.
4. Login to your WordPress admin panel and browse to the Plugins section.
5. Activate the Piclyf plugin.

Setup

Click on Piclyf Widget in the admin panel to setup the plugin. Enter your Piclyf username and the number of thumbnails that you wish to display.

Activating the Plugin

If your theme supports widgets, click on Widgets under Appearance. Drag the Piclyf widget to your sidebar or preferred location in your blog. That’s it!

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Demo

See my sidebar.

For comments, suggestions and well wishes, leave a comment below.

May all your dreams and aspirations come true in 2011!

It’s been 2 years since my last trip to the city of Generals. There’s nothing like the feeling of becoming a tourist again!

See you there!