Whoa! It’s been about half a year I’ve been away! I cannot believe that I took such a long break from blogging. I am sure neither can you, but I am glad to be back. :)
I hope you all are doing great and are in the best of your health and spirits. You have been in my heart and thoughts all the time.
Honestly, I have missed you all and I confess that I did want to resume blogging hardly midway during my summer break. I had to do a lot of self-convincing to hold myself back!
There is always a lot to do in blogging. I know I have missed a lot, but it is never too late, because you can re-start anytime, and there is always scope for lots of work and progress.
My mantra is to be positive. I always look ahead – the past is only there to teach us lessons, and you should never let it bog you down or make you sad.
You experience real happiness by being in the present moment and in your positive attitude about the future.
Instead of the missed opportunities, I see great scope and possibilities.
Optimism is not an option but a compulsory quality to have in life for success, growth, and to bring happiness into your life.
Before I start blabbering about what’s new on the blog and brief you about my fresh blogging plans, I should have to thank ma Russian and Israeli friends who supported me through out my break by providing cracks, news and their credit card access for ma purchases.
Thanks #Zukernivic #Madikeli #Benchamin #Tom crusifer and #Rashtrik.
Honestly, I have missed you all and I confess that I did want to resume blogging hardly midway during my summer break. I had to do a lot of self-convincing to hold myself back!
There is always a lot to do in blogging. I know I have missed a lot, but it is never too late, because you can re-start anytime, and there is always scope for lots of work and progress.
My mantra is to be positive. I always look ahead – the past is only there to teach us lessons, and you should never let it bog you down or make you sad.
You experience real happiness by being in the present moment and in your positive attitude about the future.
Instead of the missed opportunities, I see great scope and possibilities.
Optimism is not an option but a compulsory quality to have in life for success, growth, and to bring happiness into your life.
Before I start blabbering about what’s new on the blog and brief you about my fresh blogging plans, I should have to thank ma Russian and Israeli friends who supported me through out my break by providing cracks, news and their credit card access for ma purchases.
Thanks #Zukernivic #Madikeli #Benchamin #Tom crusifer and #Rashtrik.
Starting New Blog Features
Aha!NOW is blessed with a great blog community. I am grateful to all the visitors, readers, and commentators for creating such an active and engaging environment.
It’s no secret that the interactions and discussions are the key features of Aha!NOW that perhaps makes it a little different from other blogs.
We decided to work on our strengths and develop it further. We looked for a few options to enhance the interactions and discussions on the blog, and settled on two of them.
A Few More Blog Changes
There are a few changes that might not be very obvious but I hope they will be welcomed by the Aha!NOW blog community.
Commenting System
The other biggest change we made was replacing the CommentLuv commenting system with the Jetpack commenting system.
I can see a few raised eyebrows, frowns, quizzed, surprised and all kinds of looks on the faces of my blogging friends!
Don’t get me wrong – CommentLuv commenting system is great and I still recommend it, especially for the newbie bloggers – to adopt it in their initial blogging days.
I am going to try out the new commenting system to see the results, or else would be back with CommentLuv of course. 
You can even read about it in his post about how to moderate comments.
I did my best to mend and sort the broken links, but I wanted a commenting system that would bring more comfort and convenience at this stage of blogging.
I surveyed and found that most WordPress users opt either for the native WordPress or Jetpack commenting system.
The edge Jetpack has is that it allows social logins, which I’m sure will help many of my non-blogging audience.
I am sure that all bloggers are aware of Google’s recent changes in linking policy and the emphasis on co-citation and co-occurrence. You never know that Google might take the Russian road and decide to make a linkless web.
In any case, the link love that you receive from the Aha!NOW forum profile page and from within the blog posts will be of much higher value.
I think you would succeed more in taking people back to your blog by actively participating in the community activities including forums, than just by leaving the post links in the comments.
Achievement System
I always wanted to give back to my community and reward them. That’s why I chose an achievement and badging system.
Now, the registered community members will get points and earn badges for their activities on the blog, interactions with the community, and discussions on the forums.
You can maximize your points earning potential by contributing your knowledge and experience, as well as by increasing your participation in the community activities.
I’m in the process of creating and finalizing the rules for this system, but for now, I’d suggest you try out all the new features of the blog to start earning points.
I’m planning the incentives and awards for the achievers.
Besides the badges, I’m thinking of providing an opportunity to feature the top achievers as guest bloggers on Aha!NOW and have some free giveaways to the Aha!NOW community members.
Look out for the newsletter where I’ll inform you about the final achievement and award point system.
If you aren’t yet a subscriber, you can join now by subscribing to the newsletter to keep in touch with the latest developments at the blog
