I haven’t written anything in this blog for a while as I have been trying to figure out how to get it working properly. All this business of downloading apps just to read my blog - nightmare! Because it’s free, the package is limited. Obviously designed to entice you; get you to spend money in order to get your site ‘out there‘. Well, I have. So now, you can find my blog in the normal way. It’s been hard work, though.
So I ended up going for the £13 pm option. I did so as it seemed the best option for what I needed. Plus, you get unlimited bandwidth and can access my blog easily without the hassle of downloading stuff. I have been able to add a ‘donate‘ page for those that wish to. And part of the package included a ‘site booster’. What that is supposed to do is ’boost’ my blog towards the top of the page on the ‘search results‘.
As you may well have guessed, it wasn’t easy. I spent days trying to figure out how to install the relevant tab, etc. I contacted the call centre to get advice. The first call was fairly brief. The male telephonist had a limited grasp of the English language. But through his broken English I quickly weaved my way to the conclusion that I had to get a minimum package to get the functions I wanted. The second call was a little more helpful. The woman, this time, had a better grasp of English and managed to confirm a few things. i.e. That I had the correct package. Through her, I also discovered that the call centre was in the Philippines. Obvious really, I guess; American company - ex American colony - cheap labour. A bit like here in Britain where all the call centres are in India.
The next call was brilliant. It took a while to get through to some-one who really helped. To start with, I had spent hours going backwards and forwards searching through all the functions in the website trying to figure out how to find the new functions and get them working. I had tried finding the functions by accessing them via links in the e-mails that I had received confirming my ‘upgrade’. Nothing! I just couldn’t figure it out. I had to contact the call centre again. This time, the English was surprisingly good. The woman tried to help, but there was confusion as to why I couldn’t get the same page layout as she was seeing on her computer. In the end, she passed me on to another department. The next telephonist asked about my computer. I told her that I am using an iPhone. She then said that there is another department that could help with how to access everything using my type of computer. I was by this point in a state of despair and ready to pack it all in. However, it was with this telephonist that things became clear. The man’s name is Gianni. He explained that because the iPhone is a small computer, it cannot hold enough data to access the extra functions and therefore, I had to use a ‘desktop‘. I explained that I had no idea what a ‘desktop‘ is. He was great; not condescending, but really helpful and patient. I now know what a ‘desktop‘ is! Basically, it’s a normal home computer or laptop computer.
But, of course, I don’t have a computer of that sort.
Through Gianni, I also discovered that he was in central U.S.A. That explained why the English was much improved!
I had been on the ‘phone for an hour and a half!.
The next day, brilliant number one son, Daniel, came to the rescue. At his place we sat for a couple of hours or so figuring out how to set everything up. The whole layout is completely different on a laptop. It took a while to do, but succeeded in our mission - more or less.
The problem we could not get over is with searching for my blog. On the form, it asks for key words, so I listed some relevant words. We went through the whole setting up procedure, confirmed everything and got the message that all was done and working. So we did a test run. We tried to search for travel blogs. Nothing. We tried to search Wizard Steve. Bits and pieces, but nothing about my blog. We searched wizardsteve.blog. Yay! Second in the list. But here’s the thing; If you know the name of the site, you wouldn’t search for it. You would simply type it into what I believe is called the URL bar, click go and that will take you direct to the blog. I thought the idea of the search bar was to do a general search and by using key words the search results listed would list all the sites that use those key words. e.g. car insurance, florists, windsurfing beaches, etc. would bring up a list of insurance companies, florists, Fistral Beach, etc. So surely, typing in travel blogs would give a list of blogs about travelling(?). Not so, it appears! Something must be wrong with the set up, but what, we can’t figure. Any ideas?