Life In the Internet

Repent! Repent! The End of the Personal Computer Is Near!

2009-02-04T01:33:00.000-06:00

Ok, so after a little title theatrics...here's the real question. Is the rapid adoption of Cloud Computing sounding the death knell of the personal computer? I have a few definite opinions to go along with a whole litany of questions!

What is the Cloud and Why is it Appealing?
According to the complete compendium of human knowledge (aka Wikipedia), Cloud Computing is a concept that uses the Internet as delivery platform for applications and services hosted online. Probably the oldest example of the concept (although it was never called that back in the day) is Yahoo! Mail. The app resides on the server along with your data (email messages) and is easily accessible from any computer with a web browser (PC, Mac, Linux...doesn't matter). Now there are countless companies offering "cloud" based services. Google is of course the biggest but hundreds of others are out there too.

The clear appeal of Cloud Computing is ease of access from anywhere and no installed software. It is the concept of no installed software that has the choir warming up for the funeral of the PC. If I can do everything I need to do from any browser, the "PC" is now just a platform for the browser...right?

Hang On a Sec...
While it sounds like a good theory, can it really be so? In his latest article on PCMAG.com, Lance Ulanoff has eight key questions for Google's cloud specifically, and cloud computing generally. Some I agree with, some I don't, but the point is really a cautionary one...don't rush head long into adopting such a radical departure without at least a little forethought. There are bound to be downfalls with some of the concepts, companies will come and go, and what responsibility should the service provider have toward protecting your data? Then there is the ever present possibility that they'll get hacked, or big brother might want a peek at your data. Lots of questions without answers...yet.

So What Does the Future Hold?
Wow, wouldn't we all like to know the answer to that one! But here's at least one possible outcome, heavily slanted toward my opinion (go figure!).

A move away from the dedicated, sitting in the corner, all-purpose personal computer to more task specific appliances. Case in point, Tivo. I quite accidentally stumbled over Tivo's cool integration with Netflix. Movies viewed on demand from Netflix via my Tivo. Or if I can't find anything good there, I can watch YouTube videos or rent a download from Amazon...all through the Tivo. Great example of a task specific appliance. Oh sure, the interface is pretty weak, but hey, its still young.

Need another one, ok. How about Skype, the web based IP based communication service? With their new unlimited use pricing structure ($2.95/month I think for unlimited calls to and from US based phone numbers!) now their hardware offerings are looking pretty appealing. Takes the place of you regular phone, even looks like a regular phone.

One more? Ok. Xbox. Now instead of installing games on my PC to take advantage of the cool things the PC can do, including playing over the Internet with my friends, just get an Xbox.

Are there problems with this theory, only one I can see. The interface!!! The keyboard & mouse have worked well for the dedicated use computer, but as anyone who has tried to compose an email on their cell phone / PDA can attest, it doesn't work nearly as well away from the desktop. Will it be speech to text, gestures, sub-cutaneous implant behind the ear? Don't know but I do know, sooner or later, it has to change.

And Now, For the Pretty Bow...
Just think about it. How natural does it seem that I have to sit in a designated place, using a specific device in order to take advantage of a service? Back in the early days of the telephone (all the way up to the mid-80's or so...when they still were attached to the wall!), people had dedicated places to sit and use the phone. Heck, they even made pieces of furniture for that very purpose. How crazy does that sound to us now, just 20 years later? The same evolution of use is coming for the personal computer, in fact its already underway. So be open to adopting the enabling technologies, like Cloud Computing, that will be bringing this kind of thing into the realm of possibilities. Begin to watch for the ways the data & information we use in our daily life is now being (or could be) delivered through something other than the beige box sitting on the desk. Oh, and enjoy living through the transition! In 20 years or so you'll be able to say, "I remember when you had to sit at your desk and hold the mouse to use the computer..."

And Now Its Your Turn...
Leave comments and let me know what you think about this topic. Ways you've already seen information delivery changed... or just tell me how full of crap you think I am (I may delete your comment but at least you'll feel better!). No, really...what do ya think?

PS - After going back and re-reading this post, I did get a little far afoot from the cloud computing topic. Sorry, I was on a roll!

Big G Makes a Mistake?

2009-02-02T13:32:00.020-06:00

For those of you who may have a life not connected to the keyboard, you may have missed it...but it did happen, Google made a mistake! For almost an hour they marked almost every website on the internet as a malware site...even this one!

Now I call it a mistake because it was inadvertent(it had something to do with importing an update to their list of malware sites...go figure), they recognized there was a problem immediately and fixed it as quickly as possible. Then, they explained what happened...transparency!

In trying to find a parallel the only thing that comes to mind is the phone book or maybe classified ads. Both are prone to errors and they take time to fix but we don't find one error then throw the rest away! Oh sure we may look a little more questioningly at the other listings & ads after finding one in error but one error does not ruin the whole thing.

To the extent this is a one time occurrence, I'm willing to give big G the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, if something like this becomes a regular thing, then sure, (uggg) I may have to take another look at Y!

Anyway, that's my two cents worth. Any thoughts?

The Return of Entrecard

2009-01-18T11:09:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure if writing about it counts as "fanfare" but ... with little fanfare or a do, Entrecard has returned to Life In the Internet. If you are not familiar with Entrecard, (check it out here) it certainly is a great way to build traffic to your site ... and with a little work can even boost your page rank! But first, a little back story.

My First Go-round with Entrecard

I got signed up with Entrecard right after the site came on line a little over a year ago. Like most of those "early adopters" I spent lots of time getting everything just right and doing what you needed to do to get traffic, namely, dropping my card on other blogs and sites. The short version is this got very boring very fast and of course with my "web development" background, there had to be a better way. Besides, there were more lucrative ways for me to spend my time, right?

Well, lets just suffice it to say that the Entrecard folks and I didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on my new "card dropping methods" and after some short discussions, I managed to get my account cancelled. "Well fine," I said, "it was just a time suck anyway!"

Then It Hit Me!

While generating traffic is cool, and everybody likes to look at stats filled with lots of visitors, the real genius of this thing comes at the end of each month. While my earlier "card dropping methods" were working, I was consistently being listed in Top Card Droppers Last Month type posts with a link back to my site! Now if you know anything at all about Google page rank and Search Engine Optimization you know that links are king. Even better are links from similar sites with similar content that link to your keywords! CLICK---lights are on now!

It Can't Be That Simple Can It

You bet it can! For ranking purposes do you realize how valuable backlinks with PR are? I just finished dropping 100 cards this morning before starting this post. My very unscientific survey using the Search Status Firefox plugin revealed that of those 100 sites I dropped on today, over 70 of them had PR greater than 0. If I rank as a top dropper on 25% of those sites and they post a link for me at the end of the month, that will be 17 quality backlinks with a PR > 0. Awesome!

But I Don't Care About Page Rank and SEO...I Just Want To Blog

If that's your story, and you're stickin with it...fine. There is no shame in that. There are thousands of blogs out on the Internet run by good folks just like you...and if that's what you want you should do the very best you can with it! Good luck and let me know if I can help. If you are serious about PR & SEO that leads to $$$ ... give Entrecard another thought!

The Balloonist and the Fisherman

2008-10-31T08:38:00.000-05:00

A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below. She shouts to him, 'Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.'

The man consults his portable GPS and replies, 'You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.0 9 minutes west longitude.

She rolls her eyes and says, 'You must be supporting John McCain!' 'I am,' replies the man. 'How did you know?' 'Well,' answers the balloonist, 'everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me.

The man smiles and responds, 'You must be for Obama.' 'I am,' replies the balloonist. 'How did you know?'

'Well,' says the man, 'You don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault.'

Sack Lunches

2008-10-28T08:28:00.000-05:00

My sister-in-law emailed this to me this morning. I'll be more than happy to credit the original author.

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. "I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap," I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. "Chicago - to Great Lakes Base. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Iraq."

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached Chicago , and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time. As I reached for my wallet, I overheard the soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to Chicago '. His friend agreed. I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch.

I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?' 'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'Thank you.'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, an said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm..

When we landed in Chicago I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check Made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.'

Ten Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter...

2008-08-03T23:04:00.002-05:00

With school starting back this week, I thought it might be a good idea to re-post my ground rules... for anyone who might be interested.

Rule One
If you pull up in front of my house and blow the horn, you'd better be making a delivery, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two
Do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes and/or hands off my daughter's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off your hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

Rule Four
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate: when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five
In order for us to get to know each other, we would need to talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please don't do this. The only information I want from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house... and the only word I need to hear from you on this subject is "early, Sir".

Rule Six
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven
As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh or fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate bridge. Instead of just standing there, make yourself useful and change the oil in my truck.

Rule Eight
The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter:

Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool
Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight.
Places where there is darkness.
Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness.
Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-Shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat
Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided.

Places that are okay include:

Movies that feature chainsaws
Hockey games (go Stars!)
Old folks homes!

Rule Nine
Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a pot-bellied, middle-aged, dim-witted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I an the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and a big back yard. Don't triffle with me.

Rule Ten
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of you car for a chopper coming in low over the tree line. When my PTSD starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull-up, you should exit the car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the preimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car -- there is no need for you to come inside.

There, I think that should be sufficient.

A Father's View of Father's Day

2008-06-15T14:12:00.003-05:00

Well, its that time of year again. Another Hallmark Holiday marking the passing of another year with cards and lunch the ridiculous hunt for something Dad doesn't already have. I call Father's Day a Hallmark Holiday because its just a made up day somebody (probably executives at Hallmark) decided would be a good day to "honor dad." Mother's Day, Grandparents Day, Boss' Day and the like all fall into this category.

The sad thing is that we've all been duped into thinking that this is perfectly normal behavior. To pick out only one day to recognize the special people in our lives. Oh, and then there's the uncomfortable squeeze these "holidays" put on those people who don't have anything close to a good relationship with their respective honoree... what are they supposed to do?Its kinda like having the "birthday party" at work for the co-worker you really don't get along with. Do you go? Do you sing Happy Birthday? All so Hallmark (or whomever) can sell more cards!

In reality, why aren't we honoring those honorees every day? I mean, if they are worthy of being put up on a pedestal one day a year, does that mean they are not worthy the other 364 days of the year? And if that's the case, why fake it one day a year?

Ok, so now that I've thoroughly blasted these made up days... I am going to take this opportunity to share with you folks just what I think about on Father's Day. Just like a lot of guys my age, I'm both a son and a father and so my view of the day goes both ways, but today I'm gonna focus on my dad role.

I've got three of the greatest kids on the planet! Casey has finished up her second year at Texas Tech and is busy planning a wedding for this fall, uh yeah, HER wedding! Kevin is busy working two jobs and diggin it I suppose. And Carly, well she's getting ready to start her second year of high school and that ever elusive quest for a driver's license.

I love this picture of the kids because its one of the few that is just of the three of them and by some freak of nature, they all look happy in this one. You know how it goes... you can't get three people (especially siblings) together for a picture and keep everybody happy till you get a good one... but somehow we managed in this one.

I think Father's Day is a great opportunity to look back over the past year to see how well we did our job as dads. Instead of sitting around and taking advantage of the one day most dads can get by with doing just about anything (or nothing)... why not take stock of what you've done to build up and teach your kid, devote time to them doing what they want to do and building positive memories with them.

For me, this has been a tough job today. The past year hasn't been the easiest for our family. With the moves, new jobs, no jobs, new schools, new friends... there's just been a lot of life goin on in our family and frankly, I haven't done much to make it easier for everyone else. In spite of all that, there has been one thing I've been able to depend on... the love and support of my family... especially my kids. Thanks guys!

Sorry if that was a little personal for you, but I wanted to throw out an example for the other dads that will get a chance to read this. No matter how old your kids are, you're laying the groundwork today, and everyday, for the rest of your life with them. Remember, they'll be picking out your retirement home! LOL...

All kidding aside, pour into your kids today. We're not guaranteed our next breath and there are very few dads that have laid on their death beds wishing they could have spent more time at work. For most of us, our kids will only be home with us for a few years and it is in those years that we have the opportunity to enjoy life with them. That's one of the things I'm thankful for on this Father's Day and I hope you can be too. If not, take the opportunity today to make plans that will let you look back this time next year on the best year of you and your kid's lives.

Happy Father's Day dads!

What Happened On LOST?

2008-05-15T15:01:00.006-05:00

Wow, you know you like a show on TV and start writing about it and all of a sudden you've got fans and followers of your own! A couple of weeks ago I wrote that I would be moving my LOST posts and things having to do with LOST over to a new blog called, creatively I think, What Happened On LOST. I'm still getting tons of traffic here at Life In the Internet looking for information on LOST though and I just wanted to remind everyone, or let you know for new guests, that all my LOST updates and recaps are now over at the new site What Happened On LOST. So head on over and check it out.

Niche Store Writer Is Here!

2008-05-14T19:17:00.004-05:00

If you missed the full story about Niche Store Writer and why you should be happy that it has finally been released, read my last post about Do You Own BANS? Then You Need Niche Store Writer!

Ok ok...so you don't want to go back and read that marathon post...fine. Let me give you the quick run-down right here.

What Is Niche Store Writer

Niche Store Writer was created by a BANS (Build a Niche Store) user for other BANS users. The purpose of Niche Store Writer is to speed up the content creation process when optimizing your new BANS sites. What? You didn't think you needed content? Isn't that what BANS is for...providing content? Are you serious!

First, if you are a BANS user that has two or three or five sites, you can stop reading now, Niche Store Writer is not for you. Niche Store Writer IS for those of us with hundreds of BANS sites.

Second, if you really think that the products BANS pulls from eBay and plops on your screen counts as adequate content, again, Niche Store Writer is not for you...because you don't have a flippin clue what you're doin.

Now with that out of the way...Niche Store Writer helps us write content faster through the ingenious application of templates and keyword replacement to generate sufficiently unique content for every page on the site. What? You're still reading? I said if you thought you didn't need content on every page this product is not for you!! Huh, oh, you want to learn do you? Ok, hang on!

So What, That's Easy

I'm not going to walk you through step by step again how Niche Store Writer works. You can read the original post for that. But what I will do is let you in on a little secret...one that I've been using every day since I started working with Niche Store Writer.

While Niche Store Writer was created with the intent to help you populate the store pages in your BANS site, that doesn't mean it is the only way to use the tool. Think about blogs centered around a certain topic. What? An example! Geeesh....ok, fine.

Lets say you've put together ten blogs, one for each horse running in the Kentucky Derby. Now you need to populate them with content, but as you're writing you find yourself saying the same thing over and over...just different names for the horses, the owners, the jockeys...uh, wait a minute! You could create a template in Niche Store Writer, the use the horses, owners and jockeys ask keywords! Huh...Huh! Oh, yeah! Now the light should be coming on.

And this is just one way you can use Niche Store Writer to help outside your BANS sites (of course you know you need to finish your BANS sites first...right!?).

How Much!?

How much would you pay? Look at it this way. Using the Derby example for up there, even doing a copy and paste and replacing the names would take you a couple of hours to get all ten sites up and populated. With Niche Store Writer you could be done in less than one hour. So how much is your time worth? I'd say its probably worth more than the minuscule $57 Dave is asking for Niche Store Writer. I told him he was crazy to price this thing so low and, well, he told me to go bugger of! lol

For a tool as powerful as Niche Store Writer that will add valuable hours back into your day, don't you think an investment of $57 is worth it! I sure did!! Buy Niche Store Writer today!

Do You Own BANS? Then You Need Niche Store Writer!

2008-05-08T16:01:00.013-05:00

Big kudos out to Dave2point0 for launching his new product, Niche Store Writer. This post is to help Dave get the word out about this fantastic product!

This is a couple of steps ahead of my most recent series on Building My Online Business, but I've had the privilege of helping Dave test this product before launch and I wanted to get the word out. If you own and run stores built on BANS (Build A Niche Store) software, then you NEED Niche Store Writer product!

First things first, please note that I said stores, plural. If you have a couple of BANS stores and you like to customize them and make them pretty and you spend a lot of time working on them, this product is not going to help you. On the other hand, if you're like me and you have dozens or even hundreds of BANS sites, Niche Store Writer is the answer to all your content problems.

The concept is simple. When you're trying to optimize your new BANS site for the search engines, the single best way to do that is with content built around and about your niche. Plenty of keyword references on every page, you know the drill. Well if you only have a couple of BANS sites, no problem. But when we're talking hundreds of sites, the task can sometimes seem so large that, well you just wind up not doing it.

Enter Niche Store Writer

Niche Store Writer was designed by a BANS user for BANS users. With Niche Store Writer you can make quick work of creating fresh new content for your BANS sites (or other sites...hint hint...again!) by doing keyword replacements in a template you design. Here, instead of telling you, I'll just show you.

You get started with Niche Store Writer on the Template tab. Here you can load your previously written templates to re-use or write one from scratch. This was the most tedious part for me because I wanted to make sure my new Niche Store Writer templates would work for a wide variety of sites. For instance if you have several BANS sites built around clothing, your Niche Store Writer content template should talk generally about clothing. Then as you are writing, you can plug in your TAGS. Think of tags as keywords that Niche Store Writer will replace for you in a few minutes. Here's a screen shot of the Niche Store Writer Template tab.

In the screen shot you can see how the [Title], [word2], [work3] and so on tags being used in the Niche Store Writer template. Now lets get some details on the Tags tab.

On the tags tab you will define the keywords and values to be substituted into the Niche Store Writer template. In addition to having a title and up to 15 keywords, you can also define certain character attributes of the html output. Put all that together and you get the Niche Store Writer edition tab...

This is where all the magic happens! The Edition tab of Niche Store Writer not only shows you the results of the template / tags merge but it also shows you a quick report on keyword density! How cool is that! Armed with that information you can always go back to the Niche Store Writer template and add or take away a few non-keywords to adjust your keyword density to suit.

So how does all this work save you any time? Remember way back up there close to the top when I said you should create general content for your Niche Store Writer templates then plug the tags in? Here's why. Lets say I have BANS sites for ladies shoes, three different sites for three different styles, boots, sandals, and pumps. Once I've written the Niche Store Writer template, all I have to do is plug my keywords into the tags tab, click on the edition tab and I have new content! Copy from Niche Store Writer and paste into BANS, next set of keywords, copy/paste, next set of keywords, copy/paste... and I'm done!

Now, I can hear you screaming from here... what about below the post? What about the store pages, thats too many templates....!!!!

Hang On There Skippy!

The way I've been using Niche Store Writer (yes, using...its good to be a beta tester!) is to put all the content blocks in the same Niche Store Writer template, then just copy and paste the part that applies to the page I'm working! See, where there is a lazy blogger, there is an easier way!

And Now For The Other Shoe...

Now that I've gotten you all pumped up and ready to drop the few bucks Dave is asking for Niche Store Writer...you'll have to wait! Dave is making the final tweeks to Niche Store Writer this week for a full on launch next week. The Good News is that its only a week. Now, here's a tip for you. If you want to be one of the first to know when its ready to go, be sure to subscribe to my feed. I'll put out a quick post when its ready with a link to the website.

*** UPDATE ***

Niche Store Writer is now available! Read All About It!!!

Also...

Keep you eye on Niche Store Writer Templates. My friend Vinny is putting together a pretty awesome collection of pre-written Niche Store Writer templates to make your BANS building even easier. Wow, with all these tools...what's gonna be left? Well, hosting, niche selection, link building... there's plenty you can spend your new found time on! Stay tuned! Great things are on the way!

Peace

Building My Online Business

2008-04-29T23:50:00.005-05:00

Sometimes it takes a good swift kick in the pants to get your attention...

...and that's what I got this week while reading some of my favorite blogs. This site started as a journal of experiences I encountered while living and working in a connected world. Looking back over my last dozen or so posts, it has been anything but and I need to get back on track. So here goes. Let's talk about...

Building My Online Business

For the first fifteen years or so of my professional career I worked in a wide variety of businesses; an international natural foods network marketing company, the second largest telecom company in the country, a printing company, even commercial software development. One of the reasons I was able to move from industry to industry so easily was because the underlying principles of technology were not dependent on what kind of widget was being pushed out the back door. A similar principle applies here.

Just because I have moved my business online doesn't mean that those same underlying principles of good business practices and monetization don't apply anymore, in spite of the way some online entrepreneurs act. Take the recent purchase of one mans goal dot com for instance. The buyer paid over $10,000 for a website with no organic product, no long tenured customers, no established monthly recurring revenue... just a name and a quasi-loyal following of readers. That's like paying $10,000 for a convenience store that doesn't sell anything but they have lots of people come in and look around everyday.

So How Do They Translate?

Good question. Off-line business principles make good online business principles. Things like keeping a low overhead, diversification, and return on investment still apply. Some are easier than others, take low overhead for example. It would be very easy to run a successful online business with a laptop and a digital camera. Neither are cheap but they are one time costs that will last for years. And even with a somewhat larger tech base than that, my overhead costs are very low...pretty much just the cost of Internet access.

Another of those principles that very few online business owners pay attention to is diversification, or having multiple streams of income. Why diversify? Oh, I don't know. Lets say you are one of the eBay entrepreneurs and you're making boatloads of cash off their affiliate program. That's great. Now what if they pull the plug on it tomorrow, or at the end of the month? Would you be able to replace that income in 30 days?

Diversification of your online business simply ensures sustainability, another solid off-line business principle. If you had an off-line business selling widgets and you depended solely on one supplier for those widgets, what would you do if they went out of business? You have to bring the same mentality to your online business ventures.

How Am I Diversifying

Like most folks who decided they wanted to make money online, I threw up a blog and slapped some AdSense units on it, sat back and waited for my check! And waited...and waited...OH, A CLICK...for 2 cents. I got frustrated and moved on to something else. Now, with the help of the three wise men, I am working my way toward a better understand of AdSense and developing it into a significant stream of income...and it is quite a learning curve.

So while I'm working on that, I've recently taken a pretty large bite of the affiliate pie and added eBay to my online business portfolio. Now this is not really new for me, I've been signed up with the eBay affiliate program for several months...posting links and banners for them all over the place. But two things happened in the last month that have totally changed my outlook on eBay and their affiliate program and the part it plays in my online business.

The first is that eBay has brought management of their affiliate program in-house and out of the hands of Commission Junction. Now, I've never really had any beef with CJ, they've just never done anything for me...not one red cent. So I'm kinda happy that things are moving in-house with eBay. That said, they are experiencing some growing pains during the transition but hey, its eBay! Nuff said!

The second big development was my discovery of BANS or Build a Niche Store. BANS is a software designed to be loaded on your server to publish a "store like" website populated with products currently listed on eBay. Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I bought BANS back in March and built my one little store and sat back and waited for the money to start falling out of my PC. Needless to say, that hasn't happened yet (but when it does you can bet I'll shoot a vid and post it on Revver! lol). Anyway, back on April 7th, Vic over at BloggerUnleashed.com challenged us to build 100 BANS sites. That really got me thinking and I took the challenge!

The next day was my birthday so I made my present to myself everything it took to get the 100 sites built. I can now say that I have added 103 BANS sites to my online business and will be adding a few more each week.

So What's Your Point?

The point is this. If those sites only average $1 a day each then that's $103 per day and almost $3,100 / month or about $37,000 a year added into my online business coffers. Do I have your attention now?

Am I sitting back now with a bigger bucket waiting on money to start falling out of my PC? No, remember diversification? Now that I have the 100 BANS sites up, I'm working to improve my AdSense results, I'm looking for other affiliate programs, oh, and I'm getting links all over the freakin Internet!! And on the off chance that all of those options might not pay-out...I still have the bulk candy vending machines!

The bottom line is that an online business is still a business and you have to treat it that way. Its not a cool way to get to stay at home and work in your shorts, t-shirt, and flippies (but if you need any of those things, be sure to check out BloggerUniforms.info!) Seriously, you have to work like your next meal, or the light bill, or the cell phone bill depended on it.

Ok, I know this has been an epic post like you'd find on How To Make Money from Griz so I'll go ahead and knock off here...but don't stray too far because I have lots more online business tips to share. Things like getting a reseller account versus a regular hosting account, all the fun I had setting up BANS and at least one more post on some nifty little tools to help with all those sites.

Thanks for sticking with me this far and since you did I want to leave you with a challenge. If you are serious about having an online business, write down your goals for this year and three concrete steps you will take for each goal. And if you want to share them with the rest of us in the comments, we'll all be pullin for you! It kinda works that way around here.

Peace.

You've Got to Love Live TV

2008-04-29T00:20:00.003-05:00

So I'm flipping through the channels and see Dancing With the Stars is on. It's worth a quick watch and boy, was my timing great! I turned it on just before Cristian De La Fuente (sp?) injures himself and requires medical attention! Now there's something you don't get to see everyday. What was the injury? Don't know, something with his elbow. Cristian said (during an interview segment while he's obviously in pain by the way) that he though he pulled a muscle. During the ensuing break apparently an EMT looked at it and decided it was a severe muscle cramp. Either way following Cristian's performance he was whisked away to the hospital!

So tomorrow everybody is going to be asking what happened to Cristian on Dancing With the Stars...and now you can say you know!

BTW, if you are interested, the judges scores for both dances performed tonight (that's right, each couple danced twice) left us with the following scores for the week:

Jason and Edyta 55/60
Kristi and Mark 54/60
Marissa and Tony 52/60
Shannon and Derek 51/60
Mario and Karina 51/60
Cristian and Cheryl 46/60

And that reminds me...the Dancing With the Stars judges said they were supposed to score Cristian and Cheryl on their performance up to the injury...and they dolled out 7's across the board. That's a bunch of crap! Their performance up to the injury was FLAWLESS! Doesn't matter anyway, the fans will vote to keep Cristian on Dancing With the Stars for a sympathy vote if they have to. Those judges suck.

I might just have to add Dancing With the Stars to my regular watch list. The drama was a little over the top and I don't really like dancing all that much but hey...it's better than Dr. Phil!

Later!

LOST on ABC Returns Tonight

2008-04-24T10:27:00.003-05:00

First things first...the next new episode of LOST on ABC airs tonight at at 10pm eastern / 9pm central. DON'T MISS IT!

Now, on to the reason for this post! Since I started writing about LOST this season, I've gotten a HUGE response from people reading and checking up on what happened on the show. So huge in fact that I've decided to spin-off a new site just for this purpose. I got really creative with the name too... it's called What Happened On Lost. Shocking right?

I'll put a link over in the right sidebar to make it easier to find and you can always bookmark What Happened on LOST after you get over there. The new URL is even easy, it's: http://www.WhatHappenedOnLost.info! (Notice the .info and not .com)

Ok, so no update here tonight, you'll have to read all about it over on What Happened On Lost! Thanks for visiting and subscribing, hope to keep you as a reader! BTW, if you go over there to check it out, be sure to leave a comment and let me know you stopped by!

Thanks again,

Thom

Blogging From the Kiwi Stand

2008-04-09T17:13:00.004-05:00

Last week I wrote about How Blogging Should Be Like Selling Kiwi. Enough of the metaphors...

In the post I talked about the three types of bloggers. Bloggers who try to be all things to all people I call Wal-Mart Bloggers. Then there are the Homeless Bloggers who shout very loudly that they are the "experts" of blogging, but have nothing to support their claims. Then there are the Kiwi Stand Bloggers, the ones that specialize in one area and do that one area VERY well. Today, I'd like to introduce you to one of those Kiwi Stand Bloggers.

Victor Franqui a.k.a. Vic, runs BloggerUnleashed.com and finding his site has made a huge difference in my on-line life and that is beginning to translate into my off-line life.

See, Vic isn't like all the other "blogging gurus" extolling the virtues of writing great content, fishing for high subscriber counts, and selling them a eBook or some other crap to make money. This guy actually knows how to make money online and he's sharing it with anyone who will listen over at BloggerUnleashed.com

Now I guess I should qualify that preceding paragraph. Without a doubt you CAN write great content and have lots of subscribers, browsers and regular readers. You can have guest posters and run contests to reward your faithful...and, as Vic would say, "You'll starve while you're doing it!"

Instead, Vic is a proponent of creating highly targeted web sites that may only generate a trickle of traffic but that trickle is motivated to click or buy from that web site. Maybe to the tune of only a single dollar per day! How then are you supposed to make money from a trickle of traffic? By volume my friend! One dollar a day from 200 sites will generate $6,000 a month! What? You can't handle 200 sites? Check out BloggerUnleashed.com before you say that!

Vic is a former black-hatter who has turned from the dark side and is now looking to put together a portfolio of set-and-forget income streams not to be rich but to enable him to pursue his life's passion. I don't want to steal his thunder about that passion, he can tell you way better than me anyway. Check out his Challenge to get Mad vlog post and if that doesn't tell you something about this guy, you're missing the point!

I should also warn you about two things. First, Vic has, um..."salty" language and doesn't hold anything back. Consider yourself warned. Second, learning from Vic is kinda like trying to drink from a fire hose. There's just so much you have to go back and re-read / re-watch over and over.

So if you've come across this site looking to make money online or trying to figure out this blogging for bucks thing everybody is talking about, take a word of advice. Ignore the main stream and look to BloggerUnleashed.com. Then come back and tell me what you think, good or bad. I bet you'll thank me!

*** UPDATED ***

Vic over at BloggerUnleashed.com is running a contest beginning May 6th to see who can generate the most organic traffic. Now, it's too late to get into the contest but I was fortunate enough to make it. You can see my entry blog at A Jar of Skittles (http://jtrigsby.bloggerUnleashed.com).

How Blogging Should Be Like Selling Kiwi

2008-04-02T21:02:00.005-05:00

With a little better understanding of retail and marketing philosophies, we may be better situated for making money online!

I was sitting around tonight thinking about this whole making money online niche and something occurred to me...we're working really hard to re-invent the wheel here! The very first rule of retail is this...if nobody is buying, I'm not making any money! The same rule applies online!

Look, if you owned a brick and mortar business you would do retail one of two ways. The first way is to be everything to everybody, always have what the customer is looking for. I'll call that the Wal-Mart way. Alternatively, you could focus on a very small segment of the business and be very specialized. I'll call that the Kiwi Stand way. These are not new principles, they are time tested over hundreds of years.

The real irony here is that because we've switched from brick and mortar to click based retail, we thing all those principles don't apply any more. We've even introduced a new "principle" that I haven't quite named yet. It mainly consists of standing there proclaiming yourself to be an expert at something and pointing people in "the way they should go." Its kinda like the homeless guy giving me home buying tips. Wait...THAT'S IT! The Homeless Way!

Wal-Mart didn't start out as the largest retailer on the face of the planet. They started small just like everyone else. They got to where they are by huge volume and taking advantage of suppliers. I mean come on. Don't most mom & pop store owners have to ask their suppliers what a widget costs? Wal-Mart gets to tell their suppliers what they will be paid for the widget...and the suppliers are so desperate for Wal-Mart's business (i.e. validation) that they agree...whatever the price.

Now the kiwi stand guy is willing to pay a little extra for his kiwi because he want the best. He is willing to invest in providing the best, most specific product his customer is looking for. In return he is rewarded with customers who are willing to pay a little more to get exactly what they are looking for. The kiwi stand owner is also the most likely to help out the store owner around the corner because he knows the value of a good relationship with fellow retailers.

And then there are the Homeless guys, who have neither the most, nor the best...hell, no product at all...but he knows where everything is and has no problem telling you where to get the best kiwi...for a dollar! Oh, and he know about all the fruits too so there's no reason to ask anyone else...he is the final authority.

So what? What does this have to do with blogging or making money online?

Well, I'll tell ya. If you haven't already figured it out, I'm going to draw some parallels between these retail principles and bloggers.

First, the Wal-Mart's of the blogging world, yep you guessed it. These are the John Chow's of the blogosphere and his ilk. Doing massive volume and taking advantage of everyone that crosses their path. And while you may find a few really good items in the inventory, they are the exception. Most of it is just crap, and for some reason, people keep going back to get refills of the same crap!

Next, we have the Homeless bloggers like Caroline Middlebrook. No real experience, no real product, just self-proclaimed experts who, for just $99.95, will tell you everything you need to know to get where they are! (which, by the way, you're probably already there!)

Finally, we have what I want to be, the Kiwi Stand Guy. If you've ever been to or lived in NYC for any amount of time, you'll get this. Vic from BloggerUnleashed would be a perfect Kiwi Stand Vendor in NYC! You're laughing but am I wrong? ("Hey, ya need a friggin kiwi?") Vic along with Griz (How to Make Money Online) and Court (Internet Marketing) round out the Three Wise Men of Internet Marketing in my book.

I've been trying to get started making money online for well over a year and in the past six weeks of listening to the Three Wise Men of Internet Marketing, now I'm actually making some progress. Not a millionaire (yet, maybe never) but lets just say the months of $0.90 AdSense are over!

Vic, the vlogs are the best and it's like I said in some comment the other day. Your stuff is golden but sometimes its like trying to get a drink from a fire hose! I'm glad I can go back and play them again. Thanks for all you've done for me and for the rest of the blogging community!

Court, you are the keyword master! Your latest on Keyword Sniping was actually a real encouragement to me, you know, finding out that even the master can get sandboxed! Thanks man!

Griz, wow, talk about pay it forward! Not only do you make it seem so simple, you've got no problem sharing and helping us noobs get started. You are one of the good guys.

If you don't read these three blogs and you want to make money online, you should quit now. You may make a little money, but you'll starve before you make any real income.

If you read these guys you will now understand my retail analogy and the Kiwi Stand.

You don't have to have 100,000 customers a day that come in, look around, and leave. You just need the 10 or 20 who come in and BUY a kiwi! (remember...if they don't buy, I don't make any money?) Oh, and you need a couple of thousand cheap fruit stands that sell what people want to buy (kiwi, oranges, limes...whatever) on the the streets where Wal-Mart won't bother to go.

Blog on Three Wise Men of Internet Marketing...and thanks!

Need An Idea for Mother's Day -- MyOldClockStore.com

2008-03-31T09:11:00.002-05:00

Scratching your head about what to get mom for Mother's Day? How about an Antique Clock from MyOldClockStore.com!

An antique clock from MyOldClockStore.com would certainly be a unique gift and probably one she would love. Key-wound clocks have been around hundreds of years and there are many in the less-than-a-hundred-year-old category that are very affordable.

With the advent of quartz movements, atomic clocks that automatically adjust themselves, and things like that, there is just something special about the tick-tock sound of a key-wound clock or even a long-case grandfather clock. Many people call their clocks the heartbeat of their home! How could mom NOT like that!?

MyOldClockStore.com has an inventory that changes every hour with many fine timepieces like Seth Thomas Clocks, Howard Miller Clocks, Ansonia Antique Clocks, Gustav Becker Clocks, even Edward Meyer Grandfather Clocks! In addition, MyOldClockStore.com has the Internet's largest collection of Cuckcoo clocks for sale!

Run on over to MyOldClockStore.com and have a look around. Even if you don't find anything for mom (or yourself!) you may get some pretty good ideas!

Sweet Home Alabama?

2008-03-28T10:01:00.002-05:00

Wow... really not sure what to say about this one...

Since LOST is in its mid-season break, I really didn't know what to write about last night so I did what all good bloggers do with writers block...I started surfin the net! And then I came across this gem.

Just kinda leaves you wonderin doesn't it? So, here is the story as I understand it...

The group is called The Leningrad Cowboys and they're from Finland. Although I've never heard of The Leningrad Cowboys, apparently they're famous for their humorous songs and wild concerts featuring the Soviet Red Army Choir.

The Soviet Red Army Choir (a/k/a Choir Aleksandrov) is a group that actually served as the official choir of the Soviet Union's Red Army. Since gigs with the Red Army haven't been all that great for about the last 10 years or so, the group has continued performing on their own inside and outside of Russia.

I believe the video is from an appearance the Leningrad Cowboys made with The Soviet Red Army Choir in 1994 at the MTV Music Awards in New York. Although the accent is TOTALLY wrong (lol) you can clearly make out that they're doing that Lynard Skynard classic and Alabama state song...Sweet Home Alabama.

Wow. Just had to share this with ya!

PS - Since you've already killed 2 minutes of your life with the Leningrad Cowboys, how about another 30 seconds or so with the Young Turks. You'll catch the relationship in the last 3 seconds of the vid. Enjoy!

Make Real Life WebMoney With Project Payday

2008-03-25T17:43:00.004-05:00

After laying off the WebMoney theme for a while, I was inspired by Griz today to think about How To Make Money so I looked around and found my Project Payday membership and decided to get to work... Here goes!

The really sad part is I can't for the life of me remember / figure out how I signed up for it before. So alas, Griz got a referral click from me today...you're welcome!

Project Payday is a IFW scheme for generating WebMoney (IFW stands for Incentivized Freebie Websites). Griz did a much better job explaining this than I could in his post Project Payday Review - What's an IFW | How to Profit but here is the meat and potatoes...

You have all no doubt seen a 'get a free ipod' promo or a 'get paid to take surveys' blurb or 'get paid to shop' advertisement. You know the spiel - sign up for a free or small fee promotion and you will receive a brand new ipod, flat screen TV or whatever. The promo you have to sign up for is usually something like Columbia House CD's or efax or a credit card company. The gist of it is that the website giving away the free ipod gets paid for each person it refers to the vendor (Columbia House pays the website for getting you to fill out the promo offer). It turns out that this isn't a scam as you might first think - I know I did. The website actually gives away free ipods - the catch is that to get the ipod you have to refer 5 or 10 friends to sign up for the new Columbia House promo as well. The website gets - lets pick a number, say $25 - every time they refer someone. They make you refer 5 people to get your free ipod. The website makes $125 and gives you an ipod that they bought for $50. Everyone wins, Columbia House gets 5 new people to bombard with CD's (for the rest of their sorry lives) the website makes a $75 profit and you get a brand new ipod.

All of that is well and good and it is in fact why I signed up for Project Payday many many moons ago, the problem was that I'm lazy and doing all that is a lot of work. I realized today however that there is a much easier way to make a little WebMoney off ol' Project Payday...sign ups.

See the good folks over at Project Payday are willing to pay $1.50 just to get a name and email address (and I don't think they even take the time to verify the address, hint, hint). In other words, if you click on my Project Payday link, enter a name and email address, I get paid $1.50.

Whoop-tee-doo, what's in it for you? Hello... McFly...

I shelled out a grand total on $1.95 today to get signed-up and verified by Project Payday. By clicking on my Project Payday link (or any of the Project Payday ads on the site) you can do the same thing and add this revenue stream to YOUR site(s) and add a little WebMoney to your purse! After all, that's why you / we're here isn't it? Yeah, sure I get a little scratch off of it, but hey, Griz made some off me today so pony up!

*** UPDATE ***

There is a new website out called Project Payday Review. I wanted to give you the link so you had a fuller explanation of the whole program. And in the interest of fair play and equal time Project Payday Scam.

What Happened on LOST: Meet Kevin Johnson

2008-03-20T19:46:00.010-05:00

Tonight's episode on the hit ABC series LOST was called Meet Kevin Johnson and is a Michael centric episode.

This is a continuation of our series on the hit ABC series LOST. If you missed the previous installments, check here. If the whole LOST thing isn't making much sense to you, you can get caught up on previous seasons of LOST here.

AS the ep opens, we get a review of who Michael is, what he did and how he got off the island...reminding us of all the reasons those left on the island have to dislike him. And if there were any question about whether they like him or not, we're reminded by Sawyer (Josh Holloway) during a lostie meeting held in one of the barrack houses. During the meeting Ben reveals Michael is "his man" on the freighter and Locke tells the group they now have to protect Ben because the freighters will kill our losties after they retrieve Ben.

Back on the freighter Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Desmond witness the Captain of the freighter beating the snot out of some guy on the deck. He claims he's doing so to remind everyone what happened the last time someone tried to leave without his permission (uh, hello... bring us up to speed will ya!)

Sayid then finds a quick and quiet moment to question Michael about how he came to be on the island...again, and prompting our first flash of the evening. During the flash Michael appears to be driving around New York in a crappy green car in an attempt to kill himself? He only managed to land in the hospital. Then we see him trying to get past his mom to see Walt, clearly after the plane crash based on the dialog. They made it back but can't tell anyone...hhhmmm.

Things don't seem to be all that great with Michaeld and Walt as him mom wouldn't let him pass. Michael catches a glimpse of Walt in the window and Walt hides. Next he goes to a pawn shop, gets a gun, and goes to an alley to kill himself...only to be interrupted by Tom (or Mr. Friendly, which ever you prefer). So it looks like this is between Michael and Walt leaving the island and before Tom gets killed on the beach. It also means Tom could come and go from the island as well. Was he keeping an eye on Michael?

In a strange conversation between Michael and Tom, Tom tells him that that the Island won't let him kill himself. Michael goes to Tom's hotel suite (where we find our that Tom is GAY (remember he said Kate wasn't his type!)) where Tom reveals to him Widmore did in fact stage the wreckage of Flight 815. Widmore did so to keep the island to himself! Because the "Others" don't want that, Tom was sent to push Michael into an undercover job on the freighter with the ultimate objective of killing everyone on the freighter!

(BTW, we've just been through what I think is the longest flash of the series)

When Michael arrives at the freighter in Fiji he finds a care package from Tom, presumably with guns to kill the crew...but he won't open it now that he's met some of them. When he finally does open it, inside is a black case that he opens to find a big ole booming bomb! Just as he's about to start the detonation sequence we get a creepy visit from Libby warning him off...but he does it anyway and after the countdown... a note saying "NOT YET"... what the crap?

Still in the flash, Michael get a "phone call" via the radio room from Ben where Ben tells Michael he is to compile a list of people on the freighter, then disable the radio room, then the engines.

Michael agrees and we're suddenly beck to present on the freighter and Sayid promptly snatches Michael up and rats him out to the ship's captain.

Back on the island, Karl, Alex and Russo have been slipped secret directions to the Temple by Ben where he believes they will be safe. On the way, Karl and Russo are shot dead...so much for being safe, huh! To this Alex jumps up, throws up her hands and proclaims she is Ben's daughter...and the episode ends there!

We get a little bit of a mid-season break here. The next new episode won't be on till April 24th at a new time 10e/9c. Hope I can wait that long...

*** NOTICE ***

I'm moving all my LOST recaps and information to a new website called What Happened On LOST. Thanks for visiting and please bookmark the new site!

The Women of Dancing With the Stars

2008-03-19T09:33:00.004-05:00

At the risk of turning this into a TV show blog, I just HAVE to make a few comments on last night's episode of Dancing With the Stars on ABC.

If you know me at all you know I don't watch much TV so to be writing about two shows is a pretty big deal. I was flippin through the channels last night looking for WebMoney ideas and came across Dancing With the Stars season six. Now I didn't see Monday night's show where the men danced but last night it was just the Women of Dancing With the Stars...and they were pretty good.

First up was Shannon Elizabeth on Dancing With the Stars. She actually did a pretty good job and the crowd sure seemed to like her.

Next was Monica Seles on Dancing With the Stars. The former tennis player didn't do quite as well on the dance floor as she did on the tennis courts. She was stiff and obviously nervous. I'd look for her to be the first woman eleminated from Dancing With the Stars Season 6.

We also say Kristi Yamaguchi on Dancing With the Stars. The world champion and olympic gold medalist skater performed up to her expectations...very well. An early favorite because of her skating background Kristi Yamaguchi proved she would glide around the dance floor just as well as the ice. (Please...pardon the puns...i'm on a roll today!)

The last dancer of the evening was Marlee Matlin on Dancing With the Stars. The award winning actress is totally deaf and Marlee and her partner put on a stellar performance! She could go a long way on Dancing With the Stars season 6.

Far and away however was the performance of Priscilla Presely on Dancing With the Stars. I was shocked. Despite Priscilla Presley age and being the poster child for how to NOT have plastic surgery done, her performance was awesome! New leader in the race to win Dancing With the Stars for sure!

Money Magnet Review

2008-03-13T12:17:00.004-05:00

After posting my earlier article on Making WebMoney with Money Magnet, I looked it over and thought... I can do better than that. So here goes.

After a bit of my daily web surfing yesterday I stumbled across a new little gem of a WebMoney widget called Money Magnet. It is so simple that it only took a few minutes for me to see how easy it would be to make some extra cash with this Money Magnet thing.

Making money online is the brass ring of the Internet and the Money Magnet guys have found a cool way to do it. Very simply you purchase a Money Magnet widget with PayPal from a site or blog that is displaying one (like THIS BLOG, hint, hint) for as little as $10. After you pay, you are taken directly to the page with the HTML code you need to put the Money Magnet widget on your site.

The cool thing is as soon as your PayPal payment clears, the owner of the site you bought from gets paid IMMEDIATELY! No waiting for minimum payouts, you don't even have to wait for the end of the month. Your commission is deposited to your PayPal account INSTANTLY!

Another interesting thing about the Money Magnet widget is that you can buy widgets in different monetary amounts! I bought the cheapest at $10. The higher the dollar amount you purchase, the more you earn. For instance, with the $10 Money Magnet widget I will earn $5 for every sale originated through my site, even if the sale is for a $100 widget. Bummer right? Well, not exactly because with the $10 widget I can sell ANY Money Magnet widget ($10, $20, $30, $40, $50, and $100). If I bought the $100 widget I'd earn $50 per sale but I could ONLY sell the $100 widget.

So go ahead and add the 125x125 Money Magnet widget to your blog and see what kind of cash you can receive. All that's left is to get the traffic! Check out more information and buy your own Money Magnet to start earning at www.GetMoneyMagnet.com.

Enjoy!

- Thom

Making WebMoney With Money Magnet

2008-03-13T09:08:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since a wrote about webmoney, but never fear!

The InterWorld is never short of new ways to earn a little scratch, and I've discovered one. You should be seeing a little yellow widget to the right over there entitled Money Magnet. This is my newest webmoney widget. The idea is simple...

Buy a Money Magnet widget by clicking on my widget over there->
You'll get the code to put a Money Magnet on your web site or blog
Encourage people to buy Money Magnet widgets from your site

There are several denominations you can buy from $10 to $100, I bought the $10 widget. With the $10 widget, I get $5 for each Money Magnet widget that is sold from my site(s). If you but a higher denomination, you get more per sale (it's all explained very well on the Money Magnet site).

So go check it out. It's simple and looks like it could be a pretty easy way to make a few bucks.

What Happened on LOST: Ji Yeon

2008-03-13T08:07:00.010-05:00

Tonight's episode on the hit ABC series LOST was called Ji Yeon and is a Sun & Jin centric episode.

We open this episode by rejoining our losties on the freighter. Desmond awakes locked in the sickbay of the Kahana with Sayid (Naveen Andrews). Sayid is already working on his breakfast from a can as they see a note being tossed into the room (Ben's man on the boat?). The note reads, "Don't trust the Captain".

When Desmond and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) do meet Captain Gault, they start to get a pretty good idea of the freighter's mission. The Captain shows them the flight data recorder (the black box) from flight 815 (obviously fake because the real one is on the island with the actual wreckage) and tells them it was "obtained" by charles Widmore (Penny's dad). He goes on to repeat the story told to the rest of the world about the wreckage being found in the Sunda Trench with 324 dead bodies aboard. Even the captain seems a bit awestruck by someone who would have the power to fake such a thing.

Remember, we learned last week in The Other Woman that the freighter controlled by Mr. Widmore who also bought the First Mate's diary from the Black Rock and who, according to Ben, has been looking for the island for years. Apparently he knows a lot more about this island that we think. He also sponsored the boat race that got Desmond lost...was he doing so hoping one of the entries would find the island?

We see Sun and Jin sitting by the fire where Jin wants to talk about names for the baby. If it's a girl he wants to name her "Ji Yeon". Sun doesn't want to think about (perhaps because she has been told by Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) that she will not carry the baby to term and will die). Sun says it's a beautiful name and doesn't want to jinx the baby. They make a deal to get of the Island first, before discussing it further.

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) tells Sun and Jin about Charlotte hitting her on the head. She explains that Charlotte and Daniel have turned of the poison gas factory and deactivated the gas, gaining some brownie points. She also says that Juliet lied about the Tempest being a power station, "probably out of habit". Finally she reveals that the freighter-people have talked about a lot of things, but that none involved rescuing them.

We find Jin making breakfast and Jack (Matthew Fox)compliments him on how his English has improved. Jin tells Jack that Sun and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) have been teaching him...but Sun is the better teacher. Sun comes running up and pauses at the sight of Jack. Jack asks her about how she is doing and Sun says that the morning sickness has stopped. When Jack leaves them, Sun tells Jin to pack food for two days...they are moving to Locke's group.

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) draws a map for Jin and Sun to Locke’s barracks and tells them that after giving them a good head start, she will have to tell Jack (Matthew Fox) that they have left. Sun and Kate agree that Jack wouldn’t understand why they are leaving. As they are saying goodbye, they are interrupted by Juliet who tries to stop Sun from leaving. She tells Jin that Sun is very sick and will die within three weeks if she doesn’t leave the island. Sun has made up her mind though and Jin says: “Where Sun go, I go”. In a last ditch effort to stop her, Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) tells Jin that Sun had an affair...well, that tactic worked, but Sun did get a good slap in on Juliet.

After a little calming time Jin comes back around settles down...and makes dinner for Sun. He forgives her and they make up. During Jin's absence Juliet successfully convinces Sun to stay and protect the baby.

We also see a new "flash" device this week...not flash backs...not flash forward...but BOTH! Ultimately we find out that Sun is flashing forward and Jin is flashing back. In one of Sun's flashes forward we find out that she is one of the Oceanic 6 (joining Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid). We also see in one of her flashes that she has a little girl.

Back on the freighter after Sayid and Desmond talk with the Captain, they are taken to new digs...digs that are still soiled by the apparent suicide shot to the head of its previous occupant. The doc who showed them the way calls over Kevin Johnson to clean it up and as he emerges out of the shadows we see that Kevin Johnson is none other than Michael!

And the at the very end Another Shoe Drops! Hurley visits Sun after the baby is born in Korea and they go to visit Jin...in the cemetery! JIN IS DEAD! It seems Jin's flashbacks predate their flight on Oceanic 815. What we don't know is how or when he died! CRAP!

And according to the trailer for next week...someone else is going to die!

*** NOTICE ***

I'm moving all my LOST episode recaps and LOST information to a new website. The New Site is What Happened On LOST! Please bookmark the site, subscribe to the feed, and continue to visit for all your LOST on ABC interests! Thanks.

An Alexa Milestone Day!

2008-03-10T09:24:00.005-05:00

Back in December I was inspired by Daniel's 2008 Goals blog writing project over at Daily Blog Tips, and I published my blogging goals for 2008. Well, I've made at least one of them already!

Admittedly, back in December I was a bit unsure what my goals should be, after all I had only gotten serious about this blogging thing a couple of weeks earlier. But that didn't stop me from laying them out there for the world to see.

I has planned an update on the goals for the end of this month to mark the end of the first quarter but I got such a great surprise yesterday that I decided I couldn't put it off any longer!

Goal Number 7: Break into the top 5,000,000 on Alexa (currently 8,167,786). I blew past the 5,000,000 mark weeks ago but seemed to be stuck just over 1,000,000 for forever...till yesterday. When I opened my browser and looked at the Alexa Rank I was rewarded with 958,194.

Now it doesn't take much surfing (um, or mathematical acumen) to know that there are still almost 1,000,000 sites ranking higher than mine...but hey I thought it was worth celebrating!

Ok, so here's the update on all the rest!

Write at least one post every day. I've definitely not been making this goal on this blog alone, then again I have about a million times more blogs than when I wrote this goal too. Realistically, I'd like to post 2-3 times a week here so....there's my UPDATED goal for 2008.

Network with (not just link to) other bloggers. I've done ok with this one I guess. I've been working diligently in the local niche arena lately and I've been in touch with lots of folks there. I also had the pleasure of making a guest post at The Writers Manifesto entitled 3 Tips To Make Working At Home Easier. Thanks Monika for the opportunity!

Average at least 100 daily unique visitors. Wow, just went to calculate this and I'm embarrassed to post it... maybe next time! (As kind of a consolation I will say that my local niche site East of Huntsville is averaging 44.4 per day!) (Another side note, my series on LOST on ABC has helped a lot)

Average at least 300 daily page views. Again, too embarrassing to print. (East of Huntsville, 82/day)

Have at least 100 RSS subscribers. Today the number is 13. I don't watch this one every day because it is the least dependable and often most depressing number. I am satisfied with the progress overall in this category though because the trend is up! (BTW, if you'd like to subscribe to my feed...)

Average at least 3 comments per post. Well, this number isn't very good yet either but here tis: .38 per post, yes, you read that correctly. The average is less than one...but it's not zero!

Break into the top 5,000,000 on Alexa (currently 8,167,786). Already addressed this one (yeah!) but since I've hit on East of Huntsville, I thought I'd mention that EOH's Alexa page rank is 986,715 today! Not bad for a site I hadn't even created when I wrote my goals!

Generate at least $500 monthly. Well, progress here is slow but it is still progress! January and February were still less than $10 each and the trend is increasing. I've added two new revenue generators this month, ProjectWonderful ads and Yahoo! Publisher Network ads. We'll see how they go.

Ok, there's my update. As always comments with praise, ideas, or just to say hi are always welcomed and encouraged. And remember, you can be sure to get future updates by subscribing to the feed.

If you follow BloggerUnleashed.com then you should already know about the Mission Possible contest that Vic is putting on. If you haven't, stay tuned here at jtrigsby.com and you can follow my progress at jtrigsby.bloggerunleashed.com, that will be my blog for the contest. thanks for your support and see you soon.

One of those things you can only say WOW to...

2008-03-06T12:29:00.002-06:00

A very good friend sent me this link today and I've got to tell ya, I'm sure glad he did! This is one of those videos that you just have to see to believe how good these little girls are. They're called the Cactus Cuties and they are singing the National Anthem at a Texas Tech (go Raiders!) basketball game. Please take the minute and a half it takes to watch this, you won't be sorry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284