Blogging To a T

Let's embrace NewTwitter

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:09:00 +0000

Apparently NewTwitter has been gradually rolled out since September 14 but I only get to play with it a few days ago. The improvement or upgrade is much welcome, considering that there were not many (major) innovations coming from the microblogging giant since day 1 of its launch.

Honestly, the upgrade is not revolutionary. Twitter just added features which have long been demanded by its loyal users or are pretty standard on other social networking sites. Nevertheless, I believe this represents the first step for it to bring many more innovations to the table to improve users' experience in the near future.


The new interface of #NewTwitter

New features

New design with multiple tabs (@mentions, retweets, searches, etc.) in the timeline, recent and suggested activities and actions on the right.
Embedded content such as pictures and videos can be previewed and viewed directly on Twitter.
Users are able to discover related content of a Tweet such as additional information about the author and subject.
Mini profiles allow previewing of users that you come across without leaving the page (their account information, bio, recent Tweets, etc.).

Major concerns by users and developers alike

Old Twitter background will not be displayed correctly in the new design.
Twitter desktop client softwares such as TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop are rendered less useful and relevant now that some of their features have been incorporated in #NewTwitter.

Same old same old (things we are glad did not change)

Tweet still consists of 140 characters or less. Duh!
#NewTwitter seems more like an interface upgrade and functionality addition rather than a complete revamp. Hence existing applications using Twitter API should still function perfectly.

What are the responses to #NewTwitter?
At this initial stage, we can only conclude that there are mixed reactions to #NewTwitter. Some hate it, some adore it, others are indifferent. Of course, there are also thousands of Twitter users who plead to be given access to the new Twitter. Here are some Tweets in response to this upgrade.

Nobody is forced to have the #newtwitter at this point, it's only a preview.

Tweeted by @DanOfficial

Yes but won't all of us need to switch to #newtwitter, eventually?

#newtwitter so far very cool, but still missing some nice #Tweetdeck features
Tweeted by @BizTechMBA

Really? I'm not sure what are those missing features. But being able to view embedded medias on #newtwitter is pretty cool!

I don't like the #newtwitter! And it thinks I'm in #Poland :D Ok, that's kinda cool:D:D
Tweeted by @Natalie_C_Sweet

I think you have to embrace #newtwitter, better sooner than later :D

To see more conversations about #NewTwitter, you could search for the hashtag or follow this link here:
Twitter.com Search Results for #NewTwitter

Finally, here are some resources for you to find out more about #NewTwitter:
Introducing new Twitter.com Video Hosted on Youtube
10 things missing in the new Twitter interface
The New Twitter Is an Attack on All Desktop Apps
The Best Subtle Things About New Twitter (highly recommended, contains many useful tips for using new Twitter)

Hope you like this post and if you do, kindly retweet or share it with your Facebook friends. Have a nice day!

P.S. How do you find #NewTwitter? Do you like it or not? Why? What other features you would like to see in Twitter?

WPWebHost Cheap Freedom Plan Hosting Up for Grabs (Limited Units!)

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:17:00 +0000

In conjunction with the launch of its new website appearance (redesign), WPWebHost announced a crazy one time discount up to 90% for its WPWebHost Freedom Plan.

What is offered under WPWebHost Freedom Plan?

Total web space: 50GB
Monthly data transfer: 500GB
FREE lifetime domain name
Host up to 50 domain names per account
cPanel
Unlimited subdomains, MySQL database, FTP accounts
Nightly backups
One-click WordPress auto-installer
Extensive free WordPress tips and video tutorials

To summarize, this Freedom Plan is suitable for small and medium business and individual use especially if you do not expect more than 30,000 unique visitors per month. You can always upgrade to higher plans later on if you need to expand beyond that figure.

Unfortunately, there are limited units under this promotion (first come, first served, while stock lasts). As I am writing this post, the discount code for 90% (10 units), 80% (30 units) and 70% (50 units) discounts have been fully utilized and those units have sold out. There is currently less than 300 units remaining under this promotion for the 60% and 50% discounts.

As shown in the image above, you can save even more if you immediately sign up for 2 years hosting. Based on the features in Freedom Plan, it is almost impossible to find another quality web host which could offer a better price than $2 / month. This is truly affordable hosting at its best!

Don't wait any longer, lock in the offer at the 60% discounted price now. Click on the link below to sign up:

WPWebHost Freedom Plan Discount Up To 60% Off (affiliate link)

P.S. How about me? Did I grab this irresistible offer? Yes, I signed up for 60% discount for 2 years. Over to you now!

What is your Twitter account worth?

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:36:00 +0000

Mine is apparently worth $103.

$103

Created by WhatsMyTwitterAccountWorth.com

What's yours worth? Find out at WhatsMyTwitterAccountWorth.com and @bobbytco me to share it with me.

Add my twitter to social network and interact with me. Looking forward to interacting with you!

Just received $10 cashout from Project Wonderful, thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:23:00 +0000

Yesterday when I logged into my Project Wonderful account, I noticed that I have accumulated enough funds to cash out or withdraw (the minimum amount before withdrawal is permitted is $10). Each withdrawal are charged $1 regardless of the amount withdrawn, I guess this is fair for the company, especially after the introduction of PayPal fee lately.

Project Wonderful is a good opportunity to make money for small publishers and also to gain exposure for advertisers who run a tight budget. Project Wonderful is a advertising network which automates the task of buying and selling ad spaces at their marketplace. Its unique system is based on auction of ad spaces, i.e. whoever bids the highest will get the ad space. You can start advertising for as low as FREE (due to default minimal bid value being set to $0.00 to promote initial bidding) to several cents a day up to the amount you are comfortable to pay for the ad space (the highest bid amount I have seen is about $45).

I think Project Wonderful is offering an advertising alternative which has not been made available before. There is no weekly or monthly commitment, you only bid for a particular day which you can cancel anytime. It also allows advertisers to display their ads on multiple sites at cheap rather than pool all their resources on a single site which may or may not bring desired traffic or attention. On the other hand, small advertisers benefit by being able to try out the efficacy of a campaign on a high traffic publisher site without being tied down for long term.

Other advantages/benefits offered by Project Wonderful:

easy to set up for publishers (select the ad types you want, copy and paste the code into your site)
payment by PayPal (minimum amount to cash out is $10 with $1 withdrawal fee)
no fixed payment dates (you can withdraw anytime, unlimited times per month provided have minimum cash out amount)
detailed statistics and reporting system (with export to spreadsheet capability!)
easy to use and effective marketplace (https://www.projectwonderful.com/adsearch.php)
multiple ad sizes supported

It took me quite a while to accumulate $10 with Project Wonderful because I was only serving their ads here on this blog, which is not very popular to be honest. However now having received payment from them, I can trust them, throw caution to the wind and use them on more websites. I look forward to having a pleasant time as a publisher with Project Wonderful.

P.S. At this moment I am also experimenting with Adgitize, will report back about my experience later on. Do you have experience with any of these advertising networks? Do share your experience with us.

Infolinks Q&A Review

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:11:00 +0000

Today I would like to share with you a review about Infolinks, an "In-Text (Contextual) Advertising" company. It acts as the middle person between advertisers and publishers (blog and website owners). Advertisement relevant to a publisher's content (hence CONTEXTUAL) is effortlessly integrated within the text, taking up no extra real estate space on publisher's site.

This review will be in the form of questions and answers (Q&A), because it is a format which I would like to try out on this blog. Questions will be denoted by 'Q' while answers by 'A'. My answers are in bold for emphasis.

Q: How did you hear about Infolinks?
A: Honestly, Infolinks is not as famous as Google Adsense or Yahoo! Publisher Network but I have no doubt that it is catching up with them, while establishing itself as the leader in "in-text" advertising. I have heard and seen its ads 6-8 months after I started blogging and I joined them as publisher about half a year later.

Q: How fast was the integration and configuration of the ads?
A: Very fast, publisher only needs to copy and paste the Javascript code provided into their web templates. There is also minimal configuration needed. I am positive that any web users who could use Facebook can integrate and configure the ads effortlessly.

Q: Did you receive good support?
A: I have only approached the support team once to enquire whether I am allowed to share (show) my earnings screen shot with other web users. The support team responded promptly within a few hours and was very helpful and patient, even making the extra effort to refer to their administration before getting back to me.Such level of support is satisfactory enough for me. I am glad I do not have to approach them for problems regarding the advertisements, so far.

Q: How happy are you with the earnings?
A: I am quite satisfied with my earnings so far. The click through rate (CTR) and effective cost per thousand impression (eCPM) that I received are comparable to industry standard (meaning the ads are relevant for my web visitors and the ads clicked also give fair earnings). Figures and screen shot will be shown here once I get Infolinks' permission.

Q: Did you get paid on time?
A: Unfortunately I have not reached the minimum payment threshold of $100. However, I have no doubt that Infolinks will pay its publishers on time (within 45 days of the end of the payment period which would be each month as long as the balance is above or equal $100, as stated in its FAQ).

Q: What do you think of Infolinks as a company and its approach towards its publishers?
A: I would like to believe that Infolinks consider both the advertisers and publishers as its priorities and that one of its main aims is to help us earn better money and provide us with pleasant advertising/publishing From my observation, it is a people friendly company, it keeps us updated about the network's progress, activity and promotion and encourage us to interact with it, making us feel like a part of a big family. Its website of the month and Double with a Bubble contest (see video at the end of review) are testimony of its efforts to provide us with a better experience. Other publishers seem to echo my sentiments as well.

Q: Would you recommend Infolinks to other publishers? What are the advantages of serving Infolinks' Contextual ads?
A: Yes, I would highly recommend Infolinks to other website and blog owners. The are many advantages: Firstly, it is user friendly and beginners can begin making money almost as soon as they are registered. Other advertisements such as Google Adsense requires more configuration and optimization to earn a healthy income for publishers. Secondly, big and small, local and even international publishers are wanted by Infolinks and will (usually) be approved quite quickly (again contrast that with Google Adsense and Yahoo! Publisher Network). Thirdly, it is the highest paying in text advertising solution (quote), while it gives us the highest paying ads against minimal site space, it also allows its ads to be served together with Google Adsense and other forms of advertisement (Google Adsense also approves of being served together with Infolinks).

Q: What are the improvements that you wish to see at Infolinks?
A: I hope its report can be more detailed, showing the CTR of each page as well as eCPM of each keywords and keyphrases. One of these days, I also hope Infolinks can expand beyond in text and conceptual advertising, bringing in other forms of advertisements such as widgetized ads (like Chitika, Amazon, etc.) and ad boxes (similar to Adbrite, Bidvertiser, Adsense) although that may not be the company direction.

Q: Is there anything new that you learn about Infolinks while preparing this review?
A: Actually yes, I just found out that Infolinks can process payment via Prepaid Mastercard® (powered by Payoneer) which I already own. That is definitely good news for me as I have another option to receive money from Infolinks.

Q: Any last words to say to Infolinks?
A: Yes. Happy New Year 2010 and congratulations for standing strong and being the industry leader of online in text advertising. Don't lose your identity as you grow bigger and always take care of your publishers (and advertisers) the way you are doing now. They made you what you are now and they will decide what you will be in the future. I am glad and proud to be a part of the family. Thank you!

Let's see how the family party together (Double with a Bubble contest)

A Date With Astro B.yond

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:37:00 +0000

Heard of Astro B.yond lately? Perhaps you have seen this funny advertisement below as well.

Apparently, Astro B.yond will be the first-ever High-Definition broadcast service in Malaysia. This is indeed good news to Malaysian TV lovers. One step closer to becoming a developed country, eh? Nah, I'm not all that narrow, but yeah, sometimes the status of a country is based upon such yardsticks too.

Anyway, kudos to Astro for this move, yet again consolidating its position as the leading regional broadcast company. There's no better time and place too. Being just about 6 months away from the biggest sporting event on earth, FIFA World Cup 2010 will surely help in gaining new subscribers and HDTV buyers. The internet services in Malaysia which can be best summed up as "developing" (in contrast to third-world and developed) also ensures there will be people content to catch up on the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy, House, Smallville, Heroes, etc. one or two weeks after they are aired in the US, now in High-Definition. Nice!

At least there are some good news amid bad news in the new year in Malaysia (*for once*), but the following should rank quite highly in the good news category. Astro will be organizing a Astro B.yond Bloggers Night.

Date : 13 January 2010 (Wednesday)
Time : 7:30pm till 10.30pm
Venue : Modesto’s, Desa Sri Hartamas

Refreshments will be provided for and a total of 3 units of Astro B.yond set comprising 32” LG High Definition TV, Astro B.yond box, new remote control and new outdoor dish will be given out along with free subscription to Astro B.yond channels!

To grab the chance of attending this event, please refer to the following post on Nuffnang's blog. And yes, you got it right, Nuffnang Glitterati Bloggers will be given priority for a place (*I'm glowing proudly*).

Join Astro B.yond Bloggers Night and Win Yourself a 32” HDTV from LG

What are you waiting for? Go sign up for Astro B.yond but first make sure you have HDTV first, otherwise your B.yond experience will be pretty ordinary. RM20 additional fee for existing Astro subscribers for 10 times better quality broadcast. Can't beat that, can we? That would be a really good deal. Don't know if we need to foot the costs of the B.yond box and outdoor dish or not, though. Deal or no deal?

Get .INFO domains for as low as .49$ each from GoDaddy

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:34:00 +0000

This information is time sensitive, the coupon code will expire and will not work beyond the deadline. However, it is a common practice for GoDaddy to recycle their coupon codes. Who knows, the promotion may be available again after a period of time, pray someone would alert me then.

From now until Jan 10, you will be able to purchase .INFO domains for as low as .49$ (including ICANN fee) each, PROVIDED you register a minimum of 5 domains simultaneously. Even if you have no need for so many domains at once, think of something. You can register some for your friends, give them away, sell them or donate them.

.INFO domain has traditionally been among the cheapest to register but the renewal fee (for subsequent year) is not much cheaper than other domains. Such domain has its advantages and disadvantages. A man's meat may be another's poison, so consider your options and priorities and choose the best for yourself.

The coupon code to use for this promotion:
gdr1259

This coupon code also gives you free domain name privacy protection for a year (which is normally priced at $8.99 per year per domain at GoDaddy). Just remember to opt them out when you renew the domains to avoid paying more than is necessary, especially if you have no specific need for privacy protection.

There are also other coupon codes available such as domain renewal discount, bulk purchase discount, hosting purchase discount, etc. If you need them, do get in contact with me.

http://twitter.com/bobbytco

P.S. I myself have purchased 7 .INFO domains this morning, the total came to 7 x .49$ = $3.43 (which is about the usual cost of registering 1 .INFO domain).

7 Figure Code Free Home Study Course

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:35:00 +0000

This post is to make good on my promise to share the URL to the 7 Figure Code Free Home Study Course promotion. Here is the URL proper:

http://the7figurecode.com/10000Free/

To find out more about this course, read my post about it when I had wanted to obtain it for myself before I make an about turn to give up this once in a lifetime opportunity (with lots of sarcasm intended):

The 7 Figure Code Home Study Course for FREE

For those who hoped to learn something worthwhile and improve your earnings, do click on the link and fork out either about $20 or $20 + $97 (one time offer) or $20 + $97 + (Many other monthly continuity fees), depending on how deep your pockets are and how grate you are to the Guru trainers, Mike Filsaime and his partners. That would definitely be more profitable than reading the rest of this post.

Unfortunately, contrary to what I have written earlier, there will be no cheap shipping and handling fees and you are not actually receiving the physical home study course DVDs through post (unless you pay additional $97 for them). The lowest priced bargain will only entitle you to the following items:

Digital Access to The7FigureCode Complete Version
The 7 Figure Secrets Spiral Bound Printed Deluxe Report and Bonuses
Instant Affiliate Website (kind of a hosted blog to help you earn affiliate commission)
Optional: Free trial to The 7 Figure Zone (continuity membership website)

I may have heard wrong from the pre-launch promotion (video) of this giveaway, which promises extremely low shipping and handling fee. Besides, I also get the impression that the S&H fee is for the delivery of the physical DVDs of this whole course.

Instead of that, now what we are getting is digital access, a report written by a highly paid review writer and bonuses with conditional continuity subscription.

Now I know the meaning of "if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't".

Anyone else have seen the promotional pre-launch video featuring Mike Filsaime? Did he or did he not promise cheap S&H fee for The7FigureCode Home Study Course?

The 7 Figure Code Home Study Course for FREE

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:48:00 +0000

I think some introductions are required here.

The 7 Figure Code is Mike Filsaime's best selling product. Mike Filsaime is an internet marketer or internet marketing guru who could easily qualify in a top 10 most successful internet marketers list, if such list exists.

Allegedly, this said product, sells better than Butterfly Marketing, another best selling product of Mike Filsaime prior to The 7 Figure Code. That's totally possible but it does not mean one product is superior than the other, they cover different topics and The 7 Figure Code actually rides on Butterfly Marketing and other products' successes as it is actively promoted to customers of those products.

As far as I know, The 7 Figure Code aims to help entrepreneurs who are earning 6 figures reach the magical 7 figure income. That breakthrough is important, first time is always the hardest, dude! Don't worry though if you do not already have an online business, the speakers in the course are revealing their secrets of building 7 figure businesses.

Honestly, I don't believe this blog post of mine will be read by too many people who are regularly earning 6 figure income. Normally I would not even consider posting this news, for one there is no profit to be made (no affiliate link), secondly this product is apparently priced at $1297!!!

The holiday season is coming soon but the miracle has already happened. Mike Filsaime will be giving away 10,000 copies of The 7 Figure Code Home Study Course for FREE! Customers only need to pay for shipping and handling (S&H) which will be kept to a minimum of $7-$12 (depending on your location). I cannot thank Mike Filsaime enough for his generosity, especially when he mentioned that customers will not be forced into any continuity subscription upsell/downsell products during this giveaway.

I have received at least 4 newsletters from 4 different JV partners of Mike Filsaime regarding this giveaway and I am sure it will be snapped up rather quickly. Therefore if you genuinely want this product for free, add me on Twitter at @bobbytco and request the URL from me. I will update this post with the URL only after I have secured my own copy (or after the immediate launching of the giveaway). If you feel that I am asking for too much from you, you can always search for the URL yourself (I believe I have given sufficient information in this post), suit yourself.

Remember, to get the URL, do the following ASAP (no, I meant immediately)
Add me on Twitter and send a request @bobbytco
http://twitter.com/bobbytco

P.S. Here's a hint, it will start real soon, you don't want to miss out...

Long absence

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:18:00 +0000

Has been a long time since the last update.

I am not able to post regularly yet, so just back to bring you a short update.

If you have not already heard, I would like to introduce 2 websites to you which were launched several days apart few days ago:

Malaysia Today - http://malaysia-today.net/
Malaysia Today is no stranger to us, often providing great insights and shocking revelations. This is not a new launch, a relaunch would be more accurate, the site is back at its original web address and it looked (to me) more organized. Don't delete the URL of the backup site though, because judging by the new articles published on Malaysia Today, I would not bet against it being blocked (again) in the near future.

Free Malaysia Today - http://freemalaysiatoday.com/english/
I think this website would be less bias than the one featured above, it will assume the role of an alternative (and hopefully independent) news provider in the country, like its predecessors such as MalaysiaKini and Malaysian Insider but it will apparently cover many other topics besides socio-political news.

To read a more comprehensive review regarding these 2 websites, visit the link below:
New look for Malaysia Today, look out for FreeMalaysiaToday site

Do you have new and interesting Malaysian sites to share with me? Come on, don't be stingy, sharing is caring. Comments are always appreciated.

Save More Than 50% Webhosting Fee With Exabytes 52nd Merdeka Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:33:00 +0000

In conjunction with the 52nd Merdeka Celebration, our ever patriotic local web hosting company Exabytes is offering more than 50% discount on its web hosting packages (shared hosting packages only).

The countdown begins from 18 August 2009, anyone who purchases on that day are entitled to 52% discount off the original price of the hosting packages. As of today, the discount has been revised to 51% and tomorrow it will be 50%. Get the pattern now? If you have been planning to get yourself a web hosting (domains are also available at an all-time low price), there is no better time than now. The earlier you sign up with Exabytes, the more discount you will get, like they say, a penny saved is a penny earned.

The discount offered will continue to decrease until 30% when the promotion is to end. This promotion is available even after Merdeka Day, it will run until 14 September 2009.

To know more about this iLoveMalaysia Merdeka Promotion, visit the link below:
http://exabytes.com.my/merdeka/2009/index.php

Thank you Exabytes for the wonderful promotion. You are indeed a good role model, by demonstrating your corporate social responsibility consistently.

P.S. There is no affiliate link in this post. I hope you will benefit as much as possible from this promotion. Also, I am not paid by Exabytes to bring this news to you, although I don't mind being offered a free hosting package for my efforts. Just joking!

Twitter Rocket

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:05:00 +0000

Warning: Affiliate links embedded within this blog post. Proceed with caution ;)

I have mentioned several times in my social networks and blogs that 2009 is the year of Twitter. It has the most tremendous growth and buzz in 2009, so much so that I suspect it will be hard for it to maintain the momentum and better its performance in the coming years.

If you are not quite familiar with the world of internet information marketing, you might not appreciate the popularity of Twitter and the hype going around it. Others will know what I say is true: Twitter information products (and tools) are highly sought after (check ClickBank trends) and bloggers are giving increasing priority to drive traffic through Twitter rather than social bookmarking sites such as Digg, large organizations and famous individuals are also trying hard to build up their own Twitter followings.

One famous blogger who recently cannot stop talking about Twitter and his product Twitter Rocket is Ashley Morgan. Ashley owns the PR7 authority blog Upstart Blogger.

Twitter Rocket is a system which will do the following for you (summarized):

setting up and optimizing your Twitter account, making it attractive to other Twitter users and essentially make your account a "follower magnet" (quote).
automate all the hard work needed to maintain a successful Twitter account.
grow your followers by around 1,000 every week and rocket your followers, traffic and income (quote).
monetize from your Twitter account successfully.
keep within Twitter's rules, avoid suspension and keep your account safe.

People who follow Ashley's controversial Upstart Blogger blog will know how much he despised full of hype and ineffective Twitter products and systems which mainly consist of these unethical methods: mass following with no preference of real accounts over ghost robot accounts, mass unfollow accounts that do not reciprocate your following, spam endlessly and creation of multiple accounts to increase visibility.

Thus from this, I conclude that Twitter Rocket may or may not make you hundreds of dollars per week but if it could increase your followers up to 1,000 every week (recurring and might grow exponential), I feel that the price of $97 is money well spent! Especially if (most of) the 1,000 followers are genuine interacting and active humans.

Currently there are at least 2 success stories regarding Twitter Rocket users who leverage the system and their Twitter followers to sell the system as affiliates. Ashley himself revealed that the system has been selling well and his affiliates are making lucrative money. If you want to read more about the success of the said affiliates, try to find the following:

"Proof that I made $2,538 in 7 days" written by one Hannah Solo. (google it)
http://mondodynamo.com/how-i-make-a-passive-income-of-thousands-of-dollars-every-week

I am not linking to them, because I don't wish to send my visitor over to them which might earn them affiliate commissions.

I have not purchased Twitter Rocket and I am not using the system (yet). My Twitter account has merely a little over 200 followers at this moment:

http://twitter.com/bobbytco

Ultimately, remember that I don't promise that you will achieve anything remarkable with Twitter Rocket, everything that you have read about here is quoted or implied directly from Ashley Morgan himself. I just wish to try to promote the hot system as an affiliate and see for myself how effective Ashley's legions of followers and networks are. I might buy this system myself once I make a single sale of it as an affiliate (just so that I know it is really in demand and the system of promoting something via Twitter is effective).

If you appreciate me bringing this system to your attention (which may well be a distinguished and effective Twitter system compared to other products out there), kindly consider purchasing it from my affiliate link below or read more about the system from Ashley himself:

Buy Twitter Rocket Now and Add Up To 1,000 Followers Per Week Now

Entrecard Acquired By ZipRunner, Founder Graham Langdon stay on as advisor

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:27:00 +0000

The inevitable has happened. Apparently, EntreCard founder Graham Langdon has sold EntreCard Inc. to ZipRunner Inc. Googling the name ZipRunner Inc. returns zero relevant result apart from EntreCard's acquisition press release.

Read about the announcement here:
EntreCard has been acquired by ZipRunner

Here's a little about ZipRunner, as narrated by its CEO, Andrew Te:

ZipRunner is an investment company with many years of experience with Internet companies. We intend to have a smooth transition and will continue to provide essential services such as dropping cards, earning credits and allowing bloggers to network. We believe that these services are what make Entrecard special. In addition, Entrecard will continue to have Richard Clark (phirate), Entrecard’s founding developer, on its management team.

I really hope this move will further improve EntreCard. EntreCard has gone from (blogger) fans' favorite to a controversial startup, with divided opinions about Graham's plans and what he hope to achieve with EntreCard. No doubt Graham's decisions have been partly fueled by desire to break even or earn some profits from EntreCard even after serving the blogging community without any charges for a year or two.

To Graham's credit, he has implemented many changes to EntreCard in the final few months of his tenure as CEO, probably much more than he has ever done in the 2 year prior to that. Some noticeable changes in recent months:

introduction of paid ads on EntreCard network which is wildly popular
revamp of the old forum and setting up a new one
offering to buy back EntreCard credits from members
asking members to complete CPA offers in exchange for EntreCard credits to raise funds

We wish Graham Langdon best of luck. Just hearing his story, we know that he has gone through a lot, struggling and moving forward with EntreCard. He will now spend time with other projects, yet you may still hear from him about past and current challenges at his new personal blog:

http://ontrapranore.com/

Lastly I also hope for the best for EntreCard users. If there is one thing ZipRunner could do to make us believe that EntreCard is improving for the better under their management, please honour Graham's initiative to allow EntreCard users to cash out their credits! I have about $100-200 worth of credits now and I don't really know how to spend it.

I welcome response from Graham Langdon, ZipRunner Inc. and Andrew Te as well as other bloggers and people from EntreCard community network.

Not possible to earn with Homepages Friends anymore

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:53:00 +0000

Have you heard about Homepages Friends? It was among the first paid to search programmes available online. I have personally earned about £30 from this programme.

It is undoubtedly easy to earn money from this programme which pays its members either through check or PayPal. Members are also paid commissions for referring new members to the service (similar to a multi-level marketing scheme). The searches made by members are automatically recorded and audited to determine the earnings payable to the members. I have no complaint toward the accuracy of the recording and audits but Homepages Friends is known to delay in paying its members even when they have reached the minimum payout amount and time dues.

Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to a (bad or not so good) end. Apparently, Homepages Friends could no longer pay us (50% of) the revenue made from our searches, we can only choose which charity to contribute the earnings to. Members from certain countries are completely restricted from using the service.

Check out the screen shot above, click to view for enlarged view. I am obviously using Homepages Friends search service from a country permitted to use it but still I get such error message. I am reluctant to contact the support to sort out the matter. Obviously user experience and welfare are not the priority of the company anymore.

I feel the members who were responsible for building up the service and helping it earn money are not properly compensated (and consulted over this crucial decision to stop paying members for their searches). The company also tried to offer cheap incentive such as cash prizes of £250, £200 and £150 in a lucky draw to coerce and lure members to agree to the new terms and agreement of the service in order to be eligible for the draw.

The prizes are not exactly cheap but what about other members who do not win? To whom do you owe the success of your company and service? Is this what your members deserve, some which have stood by you even when payment to them are delayed by a few months and tolerated your below par support system (as far as I am concerned there is only 1 staff which often does not offer solution or answer, the staff merely forwards generic responses towards members' concerns)?

It was good while the win-win (50/50) situation existed. You may turn your back on us when you no longer needed us. In a similar way, you will never know when your partner, be it Ask.com or Yahoo! will turn its back on you. Thank you for the opportunity, we will now look elsewhere in the paid to search circle, we wish you the best of luck.

P.S. I am trying to speak on behalf of Homepages Friends members who are in the same situation as I am and feel similarly. I am aware that no all members and general public share the same sentiment towards Homepages Friends. If you feel differently, do share your opinions with us by commenting below. Comments and responses from Homepages Friends management and people who are in the know of the situation are also welcomed.

A Very Superficial Review of Become A Blogger Course

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:15:00 +0000

I have joined the 2 weeks trial access to 'Become a Blogger' coaching course by Gideon Shalwick and Yaro Starak and here is my very superficial review.

Note that new members of the course will not be getting instant access to all the videos available there, hence the subscription model of $77 per month for 6 months, which upon completion of the duration, you are granted life-time access to the site and the resources there without any additional charge.

It is indeed unfortunate that all I can hope to learn from this site is limited to at most 2 weeks' training videos. Of course, I am not complaining. For the price of $1, I managed to view high quality videos as well as download the bonus 'Master The Mindset' motivational audios.

While I enjoyed the opportunity to catch a glimpse of what a professional coaching course is like, I am disappointed to not be able to access further modules. From what I hear, these are the modules available to the life-time members of the course:

Get Your Blog Up And Running Fast And FREE
How To Optimize Your Blog For Maximum Search Engine Performance
How To Create Powerful Content For Your Blog, Consistently and Without Fail
How To Use Images On Your Blog To Make You Stand Out From The Crowd
How To Create A Different Dimension To Your Blog By Adding Audio
How To Breathe Life Into Your Blog Using Online Video
How To Create Multiple Streams of High Quality Traffic To Your Blog
How To Make Money From Your Blog

Then again, I don't really expect to access over a 100 training videos at the price of only $1. Although the first 2 modules contain good quality videos, I already roughly know about the topics. I suppose module 3 onwards would be most useful for me. Perhaps Gideon and Yaro could introduce (an optional) pay-per-view model, so that bloggers could pay to get access to module(s) which they really need.

The videos in the first module is intended for newbies. Nevertheless, it has reinforced my knowledge and I am also glad to learn bits and pieces of new facts (for me) from the basic videos. Beyond this, I cannot give further testimony. What I can guarantee is that Yaro has great knowledge and experience in teaching about blogging and that the quality of the videos and audios are superb, PDF transcripts are also provided (especially for those who are not used to the Australian accent).

Unfortunately, $77 per month for 6 months is not something I could afford right at this moment. Therefore I am planning to discontinue my subscription when my 2 weeks trial ends. I have to thank Gideon Shalwick, Yaro Starak and Darren Rowse for making this possible.

If you wish to see for yourself the quality of the videos, do follow the link below. 10 videos from the first module is provided for preview, free of charge. Don't forget to claim your free copy of "The Roadmap To Become A Blogger" too!

Become A Blogger Coaching Course

What do you think about this blogging course? Have you joined any blogging/online coaching course before? Which course would that be? Feel free to share your experience and advices with us.

Easy AdSense for Domains Setup with Name.com

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:38:00 +0000

If you are a frequent visitor to this blog, you will no doubt know that my favorite domain registrar is Name.com. I have written a post explaining why Name.com is my number one choice when it comes to domain registration.

This is not the first time I have written about Name.com positively and I am quite certain it would be the last time either. Unfortunately it does not offer any affiliate program opportunity at this moment, perhaps I should pitch the idea to the people behind it.

OK, back to the topic of this post. Just recently, a new feature has been added to Name.com's DNS Management tool (see screen shot).

To serve advertisements on your domains using AdSense for Domains, you have to make changes to your domain name's DNS settings. With Name.com it is easier to make those changes compared to other domain registrars. Just press the button "AdSense for Domains" shown above (pointed by the red arrow), then put in your unique AdSense for Domains publisher ID and you are done.

Compare this with the (multi-steps) settings required with other domain registrars:
Domain Setup Guide (link to Google AdSense Help Centre)

Too bad the domain setup guide does not include Name.com. Perhaps it is so easy that the Google AdSense team think it is not necessary to include domain setup help for Name.com domains? Who knows?

How to Solve Ads Theme Blogger Template Blackout

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Today as I was checking my blog statistics, I was shocked when I see a blackout (literally) across the main content area of my blog. The screen shot below show how the blackout looked like.

Notice how my pictures and ads were showing fine, even the PPC advertising links served by InfoLinks were visible against the pitch black background. At first I panicked, I suspected that the blackout is due to the photobucket account hosting the images of the Ads Theme Blogger Template has run out of bandwidth. However I don't really have time to weed out the problem by going through hundreds of lines of code, and I considered changing to another theme, especially if this problem is going to last over a long period.

Fortunately though, I found the solution from the place where I downloaded this theme - eBlog Templates. This template has apparently been downloaded over 17,000 times, no wonder the bandwidth runs out. There were already about 10 comments complaining about Ads Theme Blogger Template not functioning. Anyway the good people at the URL above has shared the following solution (credit goes to funny guy and ramaraobobby mostly).

1. Search for the following code in your template codes (Dashboard -> Layout -> Edit HTML):
.contentwrapper{width:920px; margin:0 auto; margin-bottom:5px; background:#0000 url(http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh92/eblogtemplates/adstheme/sbbg.gif) repeat-y right}
2. Upload the sbbg.gif file to your own photobucket account or other free file hosts.
3. Replace the URL of the file:
.contentwrapper{width:920px; margin:0 auto; margin-bottom:5px; background:#FFFFFF url(http://www.free-file-host.com/your_account/sbbg.gif) repeat-y right}

That's all the steps. Save your template once you have replaced the original URL with your own. Your Ads Theme Blogger Template should be functioning perfectly again. No more Ads Theme Blogger Template Problem.

Before I fixed my theme, I googled for some blogger templates just in case the Ads Theme blackout is beyond (quick) repair. Here are some posts which showcase the best blogger themes there are, I shall not waste my efforts, so I will share the posts with you if you need some good blogger templates.

70 Fresh And Modern Blogger Templates
Roundup Of Best Blogger Templates
120 Best Free Blogger Templates Around
125 More Excellent Blogger Templates (The Best Yet!)

There are indeed many recurring themes among the four blog posts, those are certainly themes which are proven without doubt to be the best blogger theme there is. Pick whichever ones you like, they are all free.

P.S. I know it's weird, how could we access the sbbg.gif file if the photobucket account has run out of bandwidth? And how do we subsequently mirror it? It does not make absolute sense but I would not be digging deeper into how photobucket works and its bandwidth restrictions. Anyway photobucket is an absolutely great service, I applaud them for offering optional free service! You should check them out if you need a free photo or image hosting service.

Introducing PayPerPost v4

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:08:00 +0000

PayPerPost has largely dropped out of favor (and sight too!) since slightly more than a year ago. It has turned from a major paid blogging platform (the first one too if I am not mistaken) to a mass links buying marketplace full of rampant spams, questionable links and unethical posts, not to mention the high PR requirements but extremely low payment offers by advertisers. Even its parent company IZEA was promoting SocialSpark (another paid opportunity platform for bloggers and advertisers) aggresively and left PayPerPost to rot.

I am aware that certain bloggers (and advertisers perhaps) were still making good money and having fun with PPP for the previous 1 year but I believe these people are the minority. Prior to PPP v4.0, many bloggers could only earn the initial $20.00 post opportunity from PPP and they received no further opportunity, maybe due to a lack of good pageranks or international geo-targeting opportunity. Furthermore, bloggers are unable to add additonal blogs as long as they have not written 10 paid posts on the first blog they added to the system. This restriction paralyses many bloggers, who may have other blogs with high pageranks. Personally I am more than willing to return $20.00 to PPP provided that I could add other blogs with good PR so that I am eligible for new paying opportunities. Unfortunately, in the end bloggers who were receiving opportunity were also discouraged when they are only offered $5.00 to write a post on their PR2-4 sites.

However, it seems IZEA is now pushing PPP again with this new revamped PayPerPost v4.0. I wonder why? Is the market in SocialSpark slowing down? I am not one to dig too deep into a company's strategy and come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories. Therefore, let's just enjoy the improvements. Briefly, these are the features of PPP v4.0 (mainly for bloggers):

bloggers could set their per word rate, like $0.05 per word, a 200 word post would earn you $10.
bloggers could set their per link rate, if each link is set at $3.00, advertisers requiring 2 links would have to pay you $6.00 in addition to the per word costs of the post.
bloggers could choose whether to allow dofollow or nofollow links only or both. Unfortunately there is no way to set different cost for dofollow and nofollow links.
bloggers could add as many blogs as they want, these blogs do not need approval by PPP admins, as long as advertisers would like to advertise on your blog, you're all set!

Being a blogger who values his own time and blog space and not wanting to degrade the perceived value of a freelance writer/blogger, I have decided to raise the costs of advertising when I add this blog to the PPP 4.0 system.

My price per word is $0.05.
My price per link is $.500.
Conservatively, a 200 word blog post and one link would cost an advertiser $15.00.

I doubt I would get any advertiser anyway on this blog, it lacks updates and critical news. If there is miracle though, I will certainly share the good news here.

Lastly I would like to applause IZEA for coming up with these improvements. I like your innovations but would be curious to see how well PPP v4.0 performs once it runs under full steam.

Click here for PayPerPost v4.0 alpha
PayPerPost v4.0 alpha FAQ (for advertisers and bloggers)

If you have previously registered with SocialSpark, you can use the same login to access PPP v4.0. I tried the old PPP login, but it was not working.

What do you think about PPP v4.0 and the improvements? What are improvements or additions do you think are necessary? Would PPP v4.0 return to its glory days and make advertisers and bloggers alike happy? Has anyone managed to make money from PPP v4.0? Share your thoughts with us please.

Mystery of GoDaddy Domain Forced Credit Card Payment Solved

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Did I mention having problem with the payment system of GoDaddy domain registrar? I have paid for domains using PayPal many times before.

Then the last time I tried to take advantage of its mystery 199DOMAIN coupon which allows us to register a new dot com or dot net at a super low price of $1.99, the only payment option available is credit card.

After that incident, I again renewed my expiring domains with GoDaddy using PayPal. All these made me quite confused but I thought the above incident may just be a one-off incident or a temporary glitch which would be fixed as soon as the GoDaddy found out about it.

Today I decided to google and see if there are any new coupon codes which I could use and I found this page:

Godaddy Coupons For June 2009

The site is called Godaddy Coupon Codes which I suppose will feature new coupon codes every month. From the post above, I found this:

199DOMAIN still active, just purchased 1 Domain Name. It works only if you pay with credit cards not paypal

Now apparently I am not the only one faced with the forced credit card payment problem, I guess the payment option available is set depending on the coupon code that customers use.

I don't know why GoDaddy does this but perhaps they have a monthly credit card charges target to achieve, possibly if they have a large enough volume, the amount of service charges billed by the credit card merchants would be reduced for them. This is just a wild guess, obviously I would humbly take any lessons about this matter from anyone with better knowledge and experiences.

I find it a little disturbing that this issue is not addressed by GoDaddy in its FAQ or knowledge base, or perhaps it was highlighted but it is certainly not easy to find from its site.

The GoDaddy site seems overcrowded, the navigations are confusing and overall it is not user-friendly at all. Important information is not easy to be found, there seems to be too much offers and promotions flying all over the whole site, don't you think? Am I the only one who feel this way? What is your opinion? Don't you think other domain registrars' interfaces are more neat and organized?

Bing inherits legacy to challenge Google

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:31:00 +0000

It is official now, bing Beta was fully launched on 1st June 2009. It is a new web search engine owned by Microsoft Corporation.

It is no secret that Microsoft would like to have a portion of the search engine market and revenue which is currently dominated mainly by Google. The closest competitor to Google is Yahoo while Microsoft's search engine has been ranked the third most popular search engine for a good few years now.

Microsoft sure has a peculiar way to do things. If we were to count precisely, Bing would have been Microsoft's 4th generation search engine, which are preceded by MSN Search (1998-2006), Windows Live Search (2006-2007) and Live Search (2007-2009).

I am keen to believe that continuity is rather important for any web services and virtual real estate to grow and be successful. Thus, I think Microsoft should tinker less with the name of its search engine and just concentrate on improving its search results and related services. I suppose that they are indeed heading in the direction I am indicating, for it seems the main reason Bing is launched and separated from its Live products and services is so that Microsoft's search services would be more independent, efficient and popular among web users.

Regardless of the lack of continuity or of a long-term vision (in the past), it would be naive to write off the potential of Bing at this moment. Backed by Microsoft's vast resources, it may be able to gain a larger portion of the search engine market than its predecessors. It is also important to note that Bing incorporates many new features and improvements, not just a simple name change.

Some interesting sites or pages related to Bing for you to explore:

Google / Bing Comparison
Bing (search engine) at Wikipedia

Try out Bing for yourself. It remains to be seen what Bing could do to improve web users' experience online and what effect it would bring to the search engine services market in general. What do you think about Bing?

Upcoming Posts

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:46:00 +0000

This is a short update on upcoming posts to expect from me. I think they will be quite interesting.

I finally got around to reducing my time spent procrastinating and actually do something useful and that includes updating this blog.

What are those things which I have done lately and what topics will I be writing about?

I have ordered a Butterfly Marketing 2.0 Home Study Package created by Mike Filsaime (worth $1997!). I was tempted with a free package of the current top 3 most wanted internet marketing products. I only need to pay for shipping and handling charges of $39.95 ($29.95 if it is to be delivered within US). Another Malaysian internet marketer has got his hands on the package, I was encouraged by that and do not want to lose out either. I will most probably do a review on the package but I think the post will only be available in about 2 months' time (it is a huge package).
I am signing up for blogs.mu service. It is a blogging platform which allows multiple separate blogs to be set up under 1 account. I think it would be suitable for individuals who want to publish multiple blogs or for a group of bloggers forming a blogging community or network. I will be trying it out with the latter aim in mind. Thus expect a post about this service, probably in 2-3 weeks' time latest. Thanks to Darren Rowse aka Problogger for highlighting blogs.mu.
Again, another great offer is found at Problogger. Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick's Become a Blogger course is available at the all time low price of $1. The course usually costs $77 but Problogger's readers could sign up for a 2 weeks trial at that special price. This is indeed a rare opportunity and I am taking up the offer. You could wait for my review perhaps early next month or you could grab a place yourself.
I have started using Twitter and found it to be more useful than I initially thought. There are even people who predict that Twitter could eventually replace Google. There are some good posts about Twitter and how to use it optimally. There are also additional Twitter services sites and softwares available. I will be writing about these and bring to you a few hot Twitter-related information products to help you Tweet and socialize better with it.
By the way, do you remember my post about Adsense for Domains? I have managed to set everything up to display Google advertisements on one of my empty (no content on it) domains. I will let you know if and when I make some money from it, hopefully real soon.

Do not miss out these upcoming posts. To avoid missing them, do subscribe to my RSS feeds through RSS readers of your choice or by email. I will also be tweeting these upcoming posts through my Twitter account. Do add me on Twitter if you have not already.

Cheap $2.19 dot COM domain at GoDaddy

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Have not updated for quite some time. To make up for that, I'm offering you a goody here before the start of a new month. Read on if you are interested to register a .org, .net or even .com domain at a low price of $2.19...

GoDaddy is famed for offering ridiculously cheap new domain registrations, it is probably part of its genius marketing strategy, where it sells an item for cheap but try to push for the sales of other products simultaneously. Well, I think the strategy is certainly working (otherwise why do they keep offering it?) and I am not one to complain about such a lucrative offer. The cheap domain registration is offered as a redeemable coupon code discount, the coupon code is...:

199DOMAIN

Be sure to memorize this coupon code, this offer is sort of recurring every 1-2 month(s), it will be something that you will encounter quite often in your life as a webmaster or website owner. Unfortunately for every GoDaddy account, you could only register one domain each time this coupon code offer is (re)opened.

Don't miss this opportunity, whoever you may be, webmaster, website owner, internet marketer or just a casual web consumer. You can possibly register your first domain at a ridiculously cheap price, or get a secondary domain which you have been eyeing for quite some time, or you can buy a keyword rich domain and build a niche website to earn passive income or flip it, or you can simply register a domain and flip it at webmaster community sites or forums like DigitalPoint or SitePoint for quick profit. If you own a mailing list or a membership site related to virtual estate such as web domain, you can make your subscribers happy by sharing this coupon code and news with them. The possibility is indeed limited only by your imagination.

Follow my lead and say this: Thank you GoDaddy!

Lastly, as usual, I tried to pay for a new .net domain through PayPal but unfortunately I am not able to select that payment option, I am only left with payment by check or credit card options. I have insider news that the current promotion will (most probably) end on 1st of May, hence I chose to pay with credit card. I wonder if this is a temporary glitch with GoDaddy's system or have they permanently restricted payment options to only check and credit card? The latter seems improbable, they will definitely lose quite a large sales volume if that is true. I will open a support ticket at GoDaddy and keep you informed. In the meantime, let me know if you are successful in paying with PayPal.

Have fun and Happy Labours' Day!

Update (07/05/2009):
I did not contact GoDaddy support regarding the payment options but I have since renewed a domain there and payment by PayPal is absolutely fine and I encounter no problem whatsoever. So, I'll pin the problem down to my own error or a glitch in GoDaddy (their logging in and out mechanism is not very convincing to me personally).

April 2009 OIOpublisher Coupon Code

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:23:00 +0000

Do you still remember about OIOpublisher, which I mentioned last January?

I will not be repeating what I said in that post, so if you have no idea what the heck this thing is and you are curious or interested to find out, kindly refer to the post linked above (click on the OIOpublisher hyperlink).

I still maintain that OIOpublisher is one of the most advanced WordPress plugins I have ever used and it is also in my opinion the best personal ad management platform. Regretfully though, my latter opinion does not really count for much because honestly, I have not used many personal ad management scripts, there are some free ones which I intend to try out soon, will let you know if OIOpublisher's position as the best IMHO is affected in any way after I try using other scripts.

Anyway, OIOpublisher team always comes up with new innovations, albeit a little slowly but having been with them for about 9 months, I can say for sure that there will definitely be some new features added every quarter year, either improvements to the script itself or changes to its affiliate program.

The team is very ambitious too, last I heard, they are planning to integrate CPC/CPM ad management into OIOpublisher (with an independent advertising network working parallel with this feature), a separate script module able to run independently off WordPress, etc. Well, those are the features to look forward to as addition to OIOpublisher's current features such as ad management, sales management of ads, text links, reviews and other products. Mind you, for $47, you are guaranteed of a lifetime updates of this wonderful software, there are frequent updates and improvements and not a single cent more expensive.

For an April special savings of $8 off the $47 pricetag, please scroll to the bottom of this post to get the coupon code.

I really like this software more and more but unfortunately my earnings using this plugin is still pretty low, therefore I would not boast further to encourage you to buy it. Just know that the low earnings is due to my blogs low exposure and popularity, not because OIOpublisher cannot handle the sales.

Anyway, I suppose I will be bringing another post about this software to you in May with a new coupon code again. In the coming post, I will suggest further improvements and new features which the OIOpublisher team can consider using.

For April special savings of $8 off the $47 pricetag, please use the coupon code
"SPRING-REBATE" when you purchase OIOpublisher.

Rapid Blog by Name.com

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Hello, I am introducing a new service from my favorite domain registrar to you - Rapid Blog.
First of all, this is not a paid post and there are no affiliate links, although I sure would like to be paid by Name.com if I managed to refer a few customers to them.

Name.com is my favorite domain registrar, there are many reasons for that. I am subscribed to their newsletter. I received a newsletter a few days back and was informed about a new service called Rapid Blog. Apparently this service includes a fully configured (setup) WordPress blog and a domain name at an affordable price. In other words, you are buying blog hosting from them and there is nothing to worry about, no cPanel, no WHM, no changing nameservers, no installing add-on domains, etc. You just worry about your blog layout and content while let the experts at Name.com handle the technical stuffs.

Rapid Blog at a glance
Pricing
One of the attractive features of this service is its budget blog hosting price. Its monthly plan costs $3.99/month while the annual plan would only cost $1.99/month.

What do I think about Rapid Blog?
Coming from Name.com, I have no doubt that their service will be reliable. This service is most suitable for internet users and companies that wish to try out blogging without spending too much while they take their first blogging steps.

Name.com is not the first to offer WordPress hosting service, I am sure the demand for such services will only increase in the coming years as blogging become more and more popular.

Regarding the price, its $3.99/month plan is not the cheapest in the industry, at that price I could easily get an unlimited domains hosting with 50GB monthly bandwidth, not just a single WordPress installation. However, the annual $1.99/month plan is about the lowest you could get from any of the major reputable companies. I highly recommend to pick up this package, it will only cost about $25/year.

Lastly, here are some of my concerns. This service will probably not include cPanel, what about FTP accounts, will that be supported and allowed? Is there a possibility that users would be able to use scripts other than WordPress, upon request or is this restricted to WordPress only? Also, the permissible bandwidth and diskspace for this service is vague as defined in its FAQ, hence bloggers with some decent traffic will probably avoid this service.

What do you think? Would you rather go for regular web hosting or Rapid Blog? Why?

Adsense for Domains

noreply@blogger.com (BobbyT) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:10:00 +0000

Just received a heads up from Rohaizad.com regarding Adsense for Domains is now open for registration for Malaysian publishers.

I have more than 5 domains lying around, not earning me any money and is certainly a liability when the time comes to renew their registrations.

As you may have already heard, some internet marketers make money online through domain parking. In simple terms, it means that they allow some domain parking companies to serve advertisements on their domains, revenue from the advertisements is shared between the domain parking companies and the domain owner (also known as the advertisement publisher).

It may sound easy to make money this way, but usually the domain parking companies will only accept publishers who have 100 or more good keyword domains into their programs. I personally feel that this policy is ridiculous.

Now, through Adsense for Domains, any domain owner can make money from their unused domains by parking them under Google Adsense program. The steps are pretty simple too, log in into your Adsense account, select Adsense Setup tab, then select Adsense for Domains link, accept the agreement, park your domains and start checking for your earnings.

Unfortunately, not all domains are suitable to park and earn money from, the domains should have good keywords that are frequently searched for and already have some organic traffic to them. Once you have parked your domain with domain parking companies including Google, you are not allowed to promote the domains further or drawing unnatural visits to them as that would influence your earnings from the advertisements served.

I would probably discuss about what domains are suitable for domain parking, what are the usual domain parking companies and what are the rules to observe if you wish to earn money from domain parking if there is enough interest in this topics.

For now, I have tried to use Adsense for Domains with 1 of my domains which receive satisfactory organic traffic and type in traffic daily. I shall keep you posted about my earnings (hopefully at least a few cents per day).

Do you have any parked domains? Are you making good money from them? Would you try Adsense for Domains?