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Dating Across Cultures
2007-11-19 18:26:00
Anna (see relationship blog) is currently working on a thesis concerning the unique issues experienced by people in intercultural relationships.  This work will focus on relationship problems which exist purely as a result of partners misunderstanding each other’s culture and the way a person’s culture can lead to these misunderstandings.  It will form a useful resource for people dating across cultures, as it aims to highlight those issues which are hard to identify as culturally-related and which could be mistaken for personality flaws in one or both partners.  Many arguments will be avoided if people take the time to learn about their partner’s culture and to make allowances for behaviour that may at times seem at odds with what you would expect from a peer from your own background.
More About: Dating , Cultures , Acro , Dati

Social Networking as the SEO Medium of Choice
2007-11-17 19:44:00
Blogs are old news. In terms of SEO, the benefits of blogs will soon weaken. The truth is that people grow tired of their upkeep. It is like getting a shiny new diary for the start of the New Year… within a month or two the diary entries start becoming laboured and infrequent and soon after the unfortunate diary is discarded and dumped in some box to gather dust. Blogs are going the same way. Google will recognise this and inevitably reduce the weighting of blog links. So what now for SEO practitioners, where we will get the links to boost our clients’ campaigns. The answer lies in social networking sites and the proliferation of competition which has crawled out of the woodwork in the last few years. There are various ways to utilise these sites to best effect, but with a little ingenuity (which is what Power-SEO is all about) you can grasp some very promising opportunities in the coming months. I shall not give away my secrets, but watch this space for future...
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Choice , Medium

New Blog
2007-11-02 21:52:00
Well, not quite a new blog, just an old one restarted.  I have been very busy recently working on some contract work and the Click in Love dating site is very much delayed.  Nevertheless, a little work is still ongoing and we hope to have something functional soon enough.  In addition, I hope to keep this blog up-to-date and informative.  Will post here any major progress that is made.
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Dating Site
2007-10-26 17:42:00
The Click in Love Dati ng site is still very much near completion, but unfortunately still not actually complete.  Due to a plethora of last minute tasks, I find myself swamped with too much work and not enough time to do it all.  I hope the site will be live soon, so keep reading this blog to see when the launch date is.  Nevertheless, it is still possible to register and avail of the forum (linked to from the front page of this blog).
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Firefox Browser Extension
2007-10-23 17:56:00
The Firefox browser extension I was working on has been put on hold for a while whilst I try to finish some other work. However that does not mean the extension is not worthwhile. On the contrary, it is extremely valuable as it will ease the workload in performing SEO link-building. As anyone who has worked in SEO will know, link-building is a nasty, often thankless task, which is time-consuming and unpleasant. (more…)
More About: Browser , Extension , Browse

Dangers of Wordpress Plugins
2007-10-21 21:15:00
I recently lost the entire contents of my Blog due to a combination of failing to make a satisfactory backup and some bug with a plugin. I was writing my Blog last night when my hand slipped and hit the keyboard, somewhere on the number pad section. All of a sudden, 4 Wordpress plugins (which I had installed but not enabled), were suddenly activated, my them changed and my database was deleted. That was about 7 months of blogging thrown away. So be careful with your backups and your plugins. Always make sure you backup your database as often as possible. (more…)
More About: Wordpress Plugins , Plugins

Year Plan
2007-10-15 12:07:00
Many people decide to take on resolutions to improve themselves at the start of the new year. Inevitably they usually fail to keep those resolutions. It is nothing more than a futile exercise in self-denial for a short period of time for most people. How is it possible to make these new year resolutions stick. Here is my advice: identify the areas of your personality which prevent you from completing a task (this is usually a combination of lack of self-discipline, procrastination, pessimism, unrealistic goals and lack of motivation) between now and the end of December, tackle these personality defects and see if you are able to defeat them (notice we have not even tried to choose any new resolutions yet). Recognise that these flaws are the reason for your failures and that you are attempting to break lifelong habits of inefficiency. It will take a lot of effort to remove these problems before Xmas, so give it the attention it deserves (there are many self-help books on this ...
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Fake Profile on Dating Sites
2007-10-12 14:07:00
How to deal with fake profiles is quite easy, you just delete them. How to identify them is the real problem. There are various techniques you can use to hinder the registration of spammers, so they do not really pose a serious threat, but what about the scammers? These people register profiles, pretend to be the person on the profile and then eventually try to request money from their male victims. Obviously you have to be fairly gullible to fall for these sort of scams, but nevertheless some sort of vetting process needs to be put in place to protect those vulnerable enough to fall prey to these cons. Click In Love is working on a process to identify those countries where (more…)
More About: Dating , Sites , Profile , Fake , Dati

Schreinerei Muenchen - Munich Master Carpenter
2007-10-09 11:16:00
If you live in Bavaria and require the use of a carpenter for designer or traditional furniture, then look no further than one of Munich ’s more successful studios; Matthias Neudoerffer is a Mast er Carpenter and operates out of Munich. He has created a wide variety of bespoke furniture designs for many clients here in Germany and oversees and has an international client base. I have seen much of Matthias’s work first hand and can thoroughly recommend him as both a gifted, hard-working and honest Schreinermeister. The quality of his work is second to none. On top of all that, you will find his rates extremely good value. Check out his site (link above) and feel free to contact him via the ‘Kontakt’ link.
More About: Aster , Reiner

Google Analytics
2007-10-08 15:27:00
As part of your campaign to popularise your web site, you need to know how to analyse how effectively your SEO strategy is working. One vital tool you will require is some sort of traffic analyser. Google Anal ytics is one such tool. Simply register with Google for this service and copy the little snippet of Javascript they provide onto each of your web pages. Everytime you want to get some stats, login to your Google account and behold the relatively vast amount of data available to you about your site traffic. Statistics are available for geographic locations of your visitors, browsers they use, how long they spent on your site, which pages were viewed, how they found your site, etc. (more…)
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Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover
2007-10-06 21:01:00
Cultural differences are something to be enjoyed and experienced. Add in the extra complication of inter-cultural relationships however and you end up in a whole new ball game. If you are thinking about dating outside your culture, then give to some thought to the extra difficulties you may experience. For instance, if your communication skills involve little more than various types of grunt, then you might not cope too well with the more intricate nuances of conversing with someone whose communication style is vastly different to what you are used to. Some cultures may see your grunts as primitive animalistic efforts, whereas of course we all know that grunts are a very advanced form of communication. Besides communication issues, which are amplified between genders by cultural diversity, there are other numerous pitfalls to look out for. (more…)
More About: Judge , Book , Cover

Online Dating Sites
2007-10-05 10:10:00
There are many of them and it is often hard to differentiate between them. How am I going to give ClickInLove the edge over it’s competitors? Well, the only sensible thing I can think of is to look at the plethora of other sites and to find their weaknesses. Here are a few things I have found: Complexity - most sites (if not all) are confused and packed with too much information. Navigation is difficult, information is hidden (often deliberately, such as membership cost) and the feeling when you visit these sites is not one of calmness. To fix this problem I am adopting a Web 2 layout. Clean, simple, uncluttered and zen-like. I hope it will leave visitors feeling energised and relaxed. Information will be easily found and photos will be large and detailed. Common Layout - nearly all sites I have visited seem to employ the same designer! Different photos and colours, different positioning of the page elements, but surprisingly little variation in what the site displa...
More About: Dating , Online Dating , Sites , Online , Dati

AJAX Websites
2007-09-28 17:26:00
The benefit of AJAX is that it offers convenience and speed which would not otherwise be available. If you have a database behind your site and are not using AJAX, then you can potentially wave goodbye to your customers. The web is changing, and improving the user experience is not just something to help give you an edge over the competition, it is now becoming the standard. Web 2 design is that standard and AJAX is the technology. Not that it is a new language or technique, rather it is the use of pre-existing languages and protocols to make more efficient use of the net. By implementing HTTP header usage, it is possible for Javascript to call server-side scripts to have those scripts transmit data back to the client-side Javascript. What use is this? Well, it means there is no need to reload pages if user-entered data needs verified… Javascript runs the appropriate php script (as an example server-side scripting language) which in turn sends a response back to the br...
More About: Websites , Ajax

Javascript Usage
2007-09-27 09:57:00
Should I or Shouldn’t I? The thing about using Javascript is that it can quickly become intricately woven into the logic of your site. How many of us design our Javascript-enabled sites in such a way that it will work if Javascript is turned off? Elegant degradation is not always convenient or possible. Some people disable Javascript on their browsers, so you may find that your site will effectively exclude those visitors. However, the benefits of its use are enormous. Web 2 is based on it (along with HTTP headers, XML, clean layout and design etc). I think Javascript definitely has a place in web design as it allows (via AJAX) quicker data verification, more functionality than pure HTML/XHTML, (more…)
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Web 2 Design
2007-09-26 11:21:00
For the ClickInLove site design I have mainly been working on using CSS to format and position the content. Functionally the site is completed, but aesthetically it has very obviously not been created by a graphic designer. I hope to change all that in the coming weeks. With a strict layout, such as what is seen on the site now, there will be tight CSS parameters to fight with and cross-browser compatibility will be an issue. The original plan I had was to implement this sort of site initially and then to upgrade it to a web 2 type design once the site is live and functioning. However yesterday I decided that cross-browser compatibility issues were causing a lot of problems and slowing work down and it would in fact be easier to create a web 2 design prior to the official launch. (more…)
More About: Design

Self-awareness
2007-09-25 10:02:00
Intercultural dating can have a completely new set of problems compared to other types of relationships. Communication is vital for any good relationship. Notice I use the word ‘vital’… this adjective accurately portrays the seriousness with which communication must be taken. In relationships where one (or both) of the people are not conversing in their native language, then the scope for misinterpretation and poor communication is greatly magnified. This can cause a lot of problems. People of the same gender misread each other all the time; men and women misunderstand each other as a matter of course… how much more difficult must it be for men and women from different cultures to comunicate effectively! The trick to success is a combination of patience, awareness, effort and understanding. (more…)
More About: Awareness , Waren , Rene , Aware

Web Development Skills
2007-09-24 11:52:00
What skills are required for anybody wishing to create their own website? Well, there are many options which negate the need to learn any technical skills, such as paying someone to design the site or buying a template and modifying it (which I don’t recommend as it is a false economy in terms of time and effort). If you wish to completely own and design the site yourself, then there are certain skills you will require. Firstly, let me point out that I believe taking full responsibility for your site and creating it from scratch is the correct way to go. Not only will you learn useful skills, but the maintenance of your site (which most beginners underestimate) will be easier, you will have more control over your content and ultimately will have more pride in your achievement and finished product. (more…)
More About: Web Development , Development , Skills

Free Online Dating - Read the Small Print
2007-09-23 19:30:00
There are many dating sites which claim to be free. Some of these offer T&C’s which often contain clauses which can catch people out. For instance, there is a popular site where you have to read the small print to see that once you sign up you only receive the first period for free, but afterwards are committed to a lock-in period in which you need to pay a monthly subscription. Another ploy some sites use is to sell your details to affiliate or sister sites (or worse, to the highest bidder). All of a sudden you may find yourself getting promotional emails from sites you have never heard of. Once on these email lists it can be very difficult to remove yourself (which I found out whilst doing my research for ClickInLove.com - I am still trying to get my email address removed from sites I never even registered to). I would recommend making sure you use a throwaway email address if you are not sure about the integrity of the dating site you are registering to. (more&he...
More About: Dating , Online Dating , Free , Read , Small

Upload Photo
2007-09-16 13:51:00
One of the USP’s of Click In Love is the size and quality of the photos which users upload. In addition, due to some extensive scripting, user’s photos are viewable instantly after uploading them. Not many sites offer this feature. If that is not enough to tempt you over to this dating site, then what about the photo accessibility design feature, which by default allows you to view all 10 photos (per user) and to merely pass your mouse over each to see a full-sized version of that photo - no popups, no page re-directions, no small images. Just large clear images, loaded extremely fast and viewable without even having to click. (more…)
More About: Photo , Upload

Blog Mishap
2007-09-15 19:56:00
Today was a bad day for the Click In Love Blog for two reasons. Firstly, I noticed that Google was penalising my site for some reason. Only when I investigated did I realise that my Sitemap was being updated every time I updated my blog. The reason was that I installed a Wordpress plugin that automatically created a new sitemap everytime I saved a new blog post. The problem with this arrangement was that it was only a sitemap of the blog and ignored the rest of the site, which became a major problem as it actually overwrote the main sitemap. The result was that Google visited my robots.txt file, which directed it to use the sitemap (which was erronously the blog sitemap), which effectively requested that Google only index my blog!!! That was why Google ignored indexing the main page of the ClickInLove site, the forum and the other blogs. (more…)
More About: Isha

Google Update - A Moving Target
2007-09-08 16:29:00
Why is it that after Googl e updates it’s Webmaster Tools and provides fresh statistics, the number of hits for your website starts increasing. I noticed previously that the hits increase in the week prior to the update and then level out once the update occurs. Not this time though. No increase was seen in the number of hits in Google for the site until after the update. I wonder if this is Google’s way of throwing a smokescreen around it’s update procedure. (more…)
More About: Moving , Update , Target

Munich Oktoberfest Starts in Two Weeks
2007-09-07 10:31:00
The yearly Oktober fest starts this year on the 22nd September. If you haven’t already booked a table then it will be difficult to get one now, however you can still turn up and find empty seats… you just need to keep looking and persevere. For those who have never been to the festival, it is not just about beer. There is a massive fairground with many rides and the whole event is very family friendly. Do be warned however, that if you are drinking, try not to underestimate the strength of the beer. It comes in a Mass (1 litre) and is stronger than normal beer. (more…)
More About: Munich , Weeks

Firefox Browser Extension
2007-09-05 15:30:00
The Firefox browser extension is still in development. Good progress is being made but there is still a little bit of work required to automatically fill in form fields. I anticipate that a user will provide the extension with perhaps 20 - 30 different sentences for each of the following: title, description, keywords, meta description. Whenever a user has completed these descriptions etc and wishes to automatically fill in a directory form, then the extension will randomly select the contents for the appropriate field. This will reduce the duplication of text for inbound links and help (more…)
More About: Browser , Extension , Browse

Positive Attitude to Work
2007-09-01 11:15:00
Having spent many months working on Click In Love, I think I have refined some techniques which are useful in other spheres of life. These techniques are general and individually maybe not that inspiring. However the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. In other words, practising these skills brings unexpected rewards and makes life so much easier and pleasant. As much for my own record as anything else, I shall note them here. (more…)
More About: Work , Positive Attitude , Attitude , Positive , Posi

CSS Profile
2007-08-30 12:44:00
When I look back on the tricky aspects of designing Click In Love, I think I would have to award IE the prize of ‘most troublesome feature’ to code for. The problem is that IE does not strictly follow the standard for CSS. It tries to be clever and useful, much like a little puppy that is eager to please and runs around it’s owners legs and eventually causes an accident. Microsoft is no different. By aiming to create a clever browser which is flexible, it really creates a painful excuse for a so-called CSS compliant browser. (more…)
More About: Profile , Profil

Munich Weather - Summer and Autumn
2007-08-29 10:06:00
Is it just my imagination, or is Autum n weather better in Munich than summer weather. Sure the temperature is significantly lower in the autumn, but September and October seemed relatively mild the last few years, compared to a fairly wet August. Today I am sitting in my office looking out on a wet depressing landscape. I feel a sense of loss when the summer months are washed away; such a waste… (more…)
More About: Weather , Summer

Free Dating Site - Starting Up
2007-08-28 12:06:00
I have noticed on various technical forums, that people who wish to start up a dating site seem eager to populate their databases with fake profiles. They justify this by claiming that it is a legitimate way to kick-start a website which would otherwise get no visitors. I disagree. Not only is this dishonest but it is also illegal. In addition you are cheating the very people you rely on. (more…)
More About: Dating , Free , Site , Dati

Release Date - Oct 1st 2007
2007-08-27 11:46:00
Or should that title be ‘Launch Date’. As the site’s deadlines are predominantly software driven, i.e. PHP, MySQL, Javascript, Flash and AJAX, I have chosen to use the software term for a product launch - ‘Release Date’. On the 1st October the site will officially go live and display a full set of features and member options. (more…)

The Importance of PHP Programming
2007-08-26 19:17:00
If you plan to run your own website, maybe it is worth getting to grips with PHP. Combining this web programming language with MySQL provides you with a powerful set of tools to get the job done. Many people feel it is ok to buy a custom-made site or an off-the-shelf template, however both leave you in a vulnerable position if you need upgrades or modifications to your design. PHP (much like C in syntax) is an easy enough language to learn. (more…)
More About: Programming , Ming , Import , Gram

Business Blog - Constant Maintenance
2007-08-25 12:26:00
The problem with writing a business blog is the need to constantly update it. Why is this important. As far as the major search engines are concerned, content (i.e. blog entries) that is constantly being refreshed is considered desirable… more desirable than content which is stale. The likes of Google want fresh news to report and will favour a site which does this in a professional manner. For example, imagine you run a magazine business printing short stories and this magazine has a new edition published every day. You have a choice of two authors to supply your material, supplier A and supplier B. Supplier B writes (more…)
More About: Business , Blog , Maintenance , Cons , Tena