The End of Canada’s Personal Financial Website

From Internet Dummy to Internet Guru

www.adawn.net Is Merging Into www.canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com

When I started Mind Over Matters – Canada’s Personal Finance Website in 2006, I had no idea about how to run and maintain a website. I did not know anything about the things which you need to marry and live with on a daily basis if you run a blog or a website, such as:

HTML/CSS

Web Hosting

Domain Forwarding

RSS Feed

Feed Aggregators

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get, pronounced wiziwig)

Pings

Trackbacks

Traffic Stats

Affiliate Programs

Contextual Advertising

This is just a few worth mentioning, not a complete list. I’m not saying that you need to have in-depth knowledge of all these subjects, but you need to have a basic idea of how they work and how to apply them to your website.

So much has changed since 2006. I have absorbed a lot of material in the last two years and I’m easily able to maintain a site these days. When I started A Dawn Journal about a year ago, my goal was to provide my readers with interactive, quality writing and useful information covering all aspects of life. A Dawn Journal was able to attract more traffic than Adawn.net within the first two months of its launch and since then it has been keeping me busy day and night, along with my 9–5 job.

I Can’t Keep Up Anymore

Now I have reached a moment where I am not able to keep updating both of my sites on a regular basis. I have not updated anything on Adawn.net for over six months and I have come to the decision that in order to serve you better through A Dawn Journal, it will be in ADJ readers best interest to close Adawn.net and concentrate on Adawnjournal.com. Adawn.net and Adawnjournal.com have similar types of articles and I will be moving all Adawn.net articles to Adawnjournal.com.

An Emotional Decision

The decision to shut down Adawn.net is not an easy one for me. Adawnjournal.com exists today because of Adawn.net and Invest Now became a published book because of Adawn.net. The idea to publish a book struck me one day while I was writing for Adawn.net and after two years of hard of hard work it became a reality.

What Does the Future Hold?

The whole process to close down Adawn.net will take about 3-4 months. Once it’s down, it will make my life a little easier and I will be able to concentrate on ADJ even better than before. Down the road, when I quit my regular job and start living a full dot-com life, maybe I will launch Adawn.net again or even come up with other sites–only time will tell.

Enjoying Serving You

ADJ has an increased level of traffic and it’s going up daily. I enjoy writing for you and your love and encouragement are what keeps me motivated and keeps me going. The main reason I decided to keep ADJ and shut down Adawn.net is because ADJ is a blog site and blogs connect authors with readers on a personal level; blogs build lasting relationships that regular sites can’t. When I see my readers making comments on ADJ and sending me email saying how helpful an article was or how they like and appreciate what I am doing, it means a lot to me—that’s the essence of this blog.

Last Word

Let me say something very important I leaned in the past couple of years:

You can learn anything you want; you only need the willingness to learn. Take me, for example; I transformed myself from internet dummy to internet guru–only because I wanted to learn. I did not have anyone to teach me; I gathered everything I needed online by doing online searches.

Be consistent. Be consistent pursuing your goals and never give up. There were moments when I felt like giving up. There were moments when my negative inner-sense almost took over my positive inner-sense. But instead of giving up, I consistently pursued my goals and that’s why ADJ is still alive today.

Finally, I would like to end today’s post by saying thanks to all my readers and sticking with ADJ for this long. I hope this lasting relationship will continue for years to come.

Update (Feb 9, 2009) :

Since this post went online, I stated getting emails from readers asking not to end Canada’s Personal Finance Website and not to get rid of www.adawn.net domain. I never thought this post would generate so much traffic and become the most popular post of all time. I would like to thank you all for your love and support. Based on your feedback and after careful reconsideration, I have started a new experimental site Canada Personal Finance Website. The purpose of this new site is to experiment what kind of traffic it gets and how long it takes for this site to get on Google Search Results first page. So far, it seems to be doing very well. Unlike my original Canada’s Personal Finance Website (which was not a WordPress blog), this  new Canada Personal Finance Website uses WordPress as its blogging platform. WWW.ADAWN.NET domain is kept alive and being forwarded to WWW.CANADAPERSONALFINANCEWEBSITE.COM. Without my reasers’ support, all these would not have been possible. I thank all of you again and I will keep you updated on any new issues on www.adawnjournal.com.

Is There a Chromebook Expiration Date?

Where Do I Find It When My Chromebook Expires?

Whether you call it an Expiration Date, End of Life Policy, or Auto Update Policy, Chromebooks do have a date beyond which Google does not guarantee updates.

In the past, it used to be called End of Life Policy, but then Google changed the term to Auto Update Policy. Also, Google has changed the timeframe to Auto Update Expiration several times. For example, before it was 4 years, then 5 years, and now 6 and a half years.

The Auto Update Expiration countdown starts from the date of the release, not from the date when you bought it. However, although Google’s Auto Update Policy does not guarantee to provide updates beyond expiration (6 and a half years, currently), it does not necessarily mean you will not receive updates.

There is no firm policy on this or nothing written in stone. You might keep getting updates even once your Chromebook expires. Some of the very old Chromebooks, Google’s CR-48 and Samsung’s Series 5, for example, (and many others) received updates beyond their expiration dates.

You can find your device’s Auto Update Expiration Date following the link provided. Should you continue using your Chromebook beyond its expiration date if no updates are provided? It depends on how comfortable you are in terms of your Chromebook’s security vulnerability.

Google recommends getting a new Chromebook after expiration because it will be vulnerable to unpatched exploits.

My Asus Chromebook Flip C302 will expire in November of 2022. So I still have about 5 years to go and that’s a very good life in my opinion. I will be happy to upgrade to a new one because there will be more new features and enhancements at that time. Besides, unlike Windows laptops, Chromebooks won’t break your wallet.

Chromebook Expiration Policy

5 Best Android Free Live Wallpapers

My Top Favourite Android Live Wallpapers 

First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Jan 21, 2012

Live wallpapers can add totally different dimensions to your phone or tablet screens. After searching for hours, these are my top five picks for live wallpapers. 

Lightwell Live Wallpaper CE by DeDee - A great piece and visually pleasing. This wallpaper shows your current location, how long you are at your location, time, battery status, etc. It is not live in the sense that it does not move on screen, but information changes on your screen based on your movement and location. Very easy on the battery and does not slow down the device. 

Puddle Drops by Schuler Mobile - Having this wallpaper is like having a live pool on your screen. This wallpaper simulates falling water drops on screen. Tap or shake your device to create more drops. Looks really good on a tablet screen.    

Radar Live Wallpaper by Biturix - Make your phone or tablet look like a real radar with this app. Radar beam speed, objects on radar, and color are customizable. Easy on battery. 

Blue Skies Live Wallpaper by Kittehface Software - This wallpaper makes you feel like you are flying through the clouds. Looks good, but drains battery and slows down device. 

My Beach Free by DualBoot Games - Have your own secluded beach on your screen while clouds floating above you and ocean waves breaking onto the shore. Looks very good, but drains battery and

How Google Determines the Order of Search Results

ADJ Scores Higher PageRank

First Published: ADawnJournal.com Jul 31, 2008

Recently, Google just updated their PageRank, and A. Dawn Journal (ADJ) scored a higher PageRank. Previously, ADJ PageRank was 1, and now ADJ gets a PageRank of 3. You may ask, “What is PageRank and why it is important?” Today, I am going to discuss what PageRank is, why it is important, and how Google (or other search engines) decides the order of search results.

How Google Determines the Order of Search Results

When you input keywords into Google’s “Search” box to perform a search, there are many factors that decide the order of search results. Google uses a mathematical formula called an Algorithm to display search results in order. This formula has roughly two hundred components and each component is looking for a specific part of a website to determine the total score of each website’s search results. Based on these scores, websites will be placed high or low in search results. For websites, it is very important to appear on the first few pages of search results – most people are not going to sift through some 20 million or so search results.

What Components Google Looks For

Here is just a few of the 200 components Google looks for:

• PageRank
• Placement of keywords
• Use of keywords
• Themes
• HTML coding
• How old is the domain?
• Website traffic
• Where the website is hosted

What Is PageRank?

 PageRank is Google’s way of deciding how important a website is. PageRank represents a numeric value from 1 to 10, one being the lowest and ten being the highest. To the best of my knowledge, only six sites have PageRank 10. These sites are:

 Adobe
The White House
US Government Website
National Science Foundation
World Wide Web Consortium
Google search

 What Determines PageRank?

 If a site is linking to another site, Google counts this as a vote and the more votes there are, the more important a site is. This sounds very simple, but there are many other elements to it and the whole PageRank thing is very complicated. Let me give you an easy example: ADJ is a personal finance website. If another high-ranking website such as Get Rich Slowly links to ADJ, it will be very good for ADJ PageRank. However, if a junk website links to ADJ, it will hurt ADJ PageRank. If you are interested in finding out more about PageRank, do a Google search for PageRank and read a few sites or visit Wikipedia’s PageRank page

 Why PageRank is Important

 PageRank is the heart of Google search and is one of the most significant components that determine the order of search results. Newer sites usually have zero, meaning no PageRank. It is every webmaster’s dream to achieve a higher PageRank, thus attracting more traffic. That’s why PageRank is so important.

 If you had performed a search last week by typing “Canada personal finance” in the Google “Search” box, you would have seen ADJ after five or six pages of results. Alternatively, a search for “Canada personal finance blog” would have put ADJ on the second or third page. But now, a search for “Canada personal finance” pulls up ADJ on the second or sometimes the first page and “Canada personal finance blog” search is steadily putting ADJ on the first page.

 Only Because Of You

 ADJ is a relatively new site and going through tremendous growth. The higher PageRank and momentum in growth has only been made possible because of readers like you. I would like to take this opportunity to thank ADJ readers. Thank you for all your support and thank you for reading ADJ regularly. I know that all of this is only possible because of you and your support.

A Dawn Journal Is Going Through A Facelift

A Dawn Journal New Looks

A. Dawn Journal is going through a complete redesign. I have been working with my designer for a few days now. We have decided on three final designs. Once I pick one from those three, my designer will start working to give A Dawn Journal a new life.

This facelift is necessary to take A Dawn Journal to the next level. Once completed, it will be more user-friendly and will let you navigate easily. And, of course, it will look more professional.

The main purpose of this facelift is YOU. I would like to give you a pleasant browsing experience. Visiting A Dawn Journal should be effortless pleasure, not a technical pain. I would like to hear from you. Once the new site is up, you can make comments right under my post. Alternately, you can send an email. I hope you will like the new design, and A Dawn Journal will be a part of your daily routine.

First Published: ADawnJournal.com July 1, 2008