LITTLE SNEAKY TRICKS

Mum finds sneaky method of removing splinters using Nurofen tube

2019-09-22T07:27:00.003-07:00

A child with a splinter is not fun for anyone.

author imageNatalie Morris

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/26/mum-finds-genius-method-removing-splinters-using-nurofen-tube-9020451/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

By Natalie Morris

There’s the tears and the screams followed by hours of fruitless attempts to remove the pesky shard. Tweezers, warm water, sucking – we have tried the lot.

But one mum has discovered an ingenious hack for removing splinters, fragments of glass and even bee stings from her children’s skin – and it’s so simple.

The woman, who lives in Australia, explained on Facebook how she uses the syringe that comes in boxes of children’s Nurofen to remove all kinds of stings and splinters.

‘If you have ever bought Nurofen for kids before, you would know it comes with this little thing to measure/administer the liquid medicine,’ she wrote.

‘Simply place the outer tube hole over the wound site, press firmly against the skin, then pull the inside orange tube out really quickly.’

She lauded the technique as ‘quick’ and ‘painless’ and it definitely sounds better than trying to dig around looking for a splinter with tweezers.

‘The vacuum in the tube should extract the offending item,’ she explained, adding that parents should definitely add one of these syringes to their first aid kits.

The post has amassed more than 11,000 likes in the parenting group on Facebook. One user replied: ‘Such a great idea.

‘Kids panic if you go near them with needles and tweezers to get those things out.’

Apparently the same technique can also be used on blackheads – which is something we are definitely keen to test out.

A child with a splinter is not fun for anyone.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/26/mum-finds-genius-method-removing-splinters-using-nurofen-tube-9020451/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

A child with a splinter is not fun for anyone. There’s the tears and the screams followed by hours of fruitless attempts to remove the pesky shard. Tweezers, warm water, sucking – we have tried the lot. But one mum has discovered an ingenious hack for removing splinters, fragments of glass and even bee stings from her children’s skin – and it’s so simple. The woman, who lives in Australia, explained on Facebook how she uses the syringe that comes in boxes of children’s Nurofen to remove all kinds of stings and splinters. ‘If you have ever bought Nurofen for kids before, you would know it comes with this little thing to measure/administer the liquid medicine,’ she wrote. ‘Simply place the outer tube hole over the wound site, press firmly against the skin, then pull the inside orange tube out really quickly.’ She lauded the technique as ‘quick’ and ‘painless’ and it definitely sounds better than trying to dig around looking for a splinter with tweezers. Parent's hack to remove splinters, glass and bee stings NUROFEN FOR CHILDREN 3 MONTHS - 5 YEARS STRAWBERRY https://www.nurofen.com.au/our-products/children-infant-pain/nurofen-for-children-3-months-5-years-strawberry/ (Picture: Nurofen) ‘The vacuum in the tube should extract the offending item,’ she explained, adding that parents should definitely add one of these syringes to their first aid kits. The post has amassed more than 11,000 likes in the parenting group on Facebook. One user replied: ‘Such a great idea. ‘Kids panic if you go near them with needles and tweezers to get those things out.’ Apparently the same technique can also be used on blackheads – which is something we are definitely keen to test out.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/26/mum-finds-genius-method-removing-splinters-using-nurofen-tube-9020451/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Clever Design Hack – Fake Browser Bookmark Bar by Time, Inc

2014-11-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

By Jeremy O'Briant

I was surfing around this evening and I noticed a clever hack by Time, Inc. At first I thought I had downloaded a browser virus…. then thought chrome had added a new schema-tag feature… but after further review it is just a clever hack by the web designers. Across the top of the website they have placed a grey bar that mimics the browser bookmark bar:

The bar links to other Times properties and is present across them. It is also anchored at the top so appears completely like a bookmarks bar. I checked it in Chrome and Explorer and it was the same… and not present on mobile. I also checked it out on archive.org and it seems to be relatively new. It got me thinking about some possibilities web designers could do here and I wonder if we will start to see more of this as publishers try to combat the death of the home page.

How to Save Money on Amazon With a Fake Baby

2014-10-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

By Matthew Yglesias

You need a real baby to pull this off. Amazon Mom discounts, not so much.

Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Amazon has a program called Amazon Mom that's a pretty neat way to save some money on common household items. But here's the thing. It turns out you don't need to be a mom to sign up. You don't need to be a dad, either. You just need to be a liar. Enrolling in Amazon Mom requires you to offer up some information about your baby, but there's no verification involved whatsoever. You just type in some made-up stuff and suddenly your fake baby is getting you some sweet discounts.

Here's the deal. Suppose you're an Amazon Prime member. If you are, then you perhaps know about Subscribe & Save. With Subscribe & Save, you get a monthly delivery date, and you order various Subscribe & Save items to be scheduled for delivery to your house on a regular basis. That could be once a month, or once every two months, or once every three or four or five or six months. You just need a schedule. You save 5 percent on your Subscribe & Save items relative to the list price, due to the greater convenience for Amazon of scheduled deliveries and presumably due to their hope that you'll overpurchase. Even better, on any month where you have at least five Subscribe & Save items coming to your house, you get a 15 percent discount. So right now I'm on various schedules for delivery of dried pasta, Zevia sodas (delicious if you've never tried them), counter spray, paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, artificial sweetener, Kashi bars, tea bags, hand soap, dish soap, and beans.

That's enough stuff that there should be at least five items in every monthly bundle. Nice savings.

But if you join Amazon Mom, those savings get kicked up a notch to 20 percent. And there's no monthly fee and no extra commitment to buy stuff. You just need to tell Amazon some stuff about your baby—birthday and
such—presumably so they can target you with baby-related offers. Except your baby can be fake. My baby, Tim Duncan Crawford, named after my wife's favorite basketball player and given her surname, was born on Dec. 14. Except he's just a lie I created to get cheaper soap.

Amazon is obviously aware that they've left this loophole wide open. I wonder if publicizing it will lead them to close it. But either way, if you're a Subscribe & Save user, you should sign yourself up with a fake baby. Even if you have a real baby, a fake one might be better if you don't want too many targeted deals.

Great workaround for sending delayed gmail messages

2014-10-30T07:39:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wanted to write an email now but send it a later date and time? Maybe you are sending birthday greetings and would like the email message to be delivered on the exact day. Or you have written the reply to an email but would like to schedule delivery in the recipient’s time zone when the message is more likely to get read.

Microsoft Outlook has a built-in scheduler to help you delay the delivery of email messages. After you are finished writing an email message and hit the Send button, the message isn’t delivered immediately — it stays in your outbox and is sent at the specified time automatically.

Gmail doesn’t let you schedule a later delivery of email messages but there are browser extensions — like Boomerang and Right Inbox — that let you specify a future send date for your outgoing email messages.

These are however subscription based services that allow you to send only a limited number of scheduled email messages for free per month. The other concern is privacy – you will have to grant read and write access to your entire Gmail account to a third-party to use scheduling inside Gmail.

How to Schedule & Send Gmail Messages Later with Google Sheets

If you are reluctant to provide access to your Gmail account to another service, there’s an alternative – Google Sheets.

What you can do is compose all your emails that you would like to be delivered later in Gmail and then specify the exact delivery date and time for these messages in the Google sheet. The messages would be delivered automatically at the time chosen by you. Internally, there’s a little Google Script that takes care of sending the messages at the appropriate date and time.

Schedule your Gmail – Step by Step

Go to your Gmail mailbox and compose a few test messages that you would like to be delivered later. Your draft messages can have rich formatting, you can add attachments, signatures and even inline images. Make sure that you have included the recipient’s email address in the TO field of the drafts.

Click here to make a copy of the Gmail Scheduler sheet (v2.0) in your Google Drive.
Change the default timezone of your Google spreadsheet. The emails will get scheduled in this timezone.
Inside the sheet, choose Authorize under the Gmail Scheduler menu and grant the necessary permissions. This script is running in your own Google Drive and none of your data is accessible to anyone else.
Choose Gmail Scheduler -> Fetch Messages to import all the draft messages from your Gmail account into the Google Sheet.
Set the scheduled date and time for individual messages in column D of the sheet. You can double-click a cell and use the date picker or you can manually enter the date and time as m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss in 24 hour format.
Go to Gmail Scheduler -> Schedule Messages and run the scheduler. You can close the spreadsheet and it will send messages at the specified time automatically.

Video Tutorial – Schedule Gmail Messages

Here’s a detailed video tutorial (download) that will walk you through the steps.

Scheduling Gmail messages with Google sheets is easy. Please do note that once a message has been scheduled, you should not edit the corresponding Gmail draft message else that particular message would be removed from the queue.

If you wish to edit the draft or need to change the delivery time once the messages have been scheduled, you can repeat the steps #3 to #5 and reinitialize the queue.

Awesome Google Scripts → Custom Google Scripts →

How to Change the Spreadsheet Timezone

The scheduled date and time that you specify in the cells use the default timezone of the spreadsheet. If you wish to send mails in a different timezone, open the spreadsheet and pick a different timezone under File -> Spreadsheet Settings menu.

How to Grab Your Competitor’s Audience Using YouTube Ads

2014-10-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

October 02nd, 2014 by Matt Coleman

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could play your video ads before your competitors’ main video content?

I’ll let you in on a secret…it’s possible utilizing the YouTube Ad Placements category.

If your competitors’ video allows monetization, you’re in prime position to steal a spot for your video ad.

Want to know how to make that happen? Keep reading because in this article I’m going to show you exactly how to find these channels…
Better yet, I’m sharing tactics you can use to broaden your net of similar influencer opportunities.

Before you begin digging through YouTube videos, be aware not every channel allows for video ads to appear before their content. If they do, you might have struck a gold mine — I’m going to show you how to find these hidden gems.
Let’s get started!

First, go to the main page of YouTube and type in a keyword.
As an example I’ll search for keyword “diy” and see what comes up. This is a very broad based search term with over 19,600,000 results.

Simplify the process by hovering over the YouTube channel name to get quick insight as to their subscriber base. In this example you see the YouTube channel Make has over 700k subscribers.

This information is valuable if you want to get a broad idea as to the amount of traffic their videos receive when they upload a new piece of content.

Next, click on the “Filters” tab and check out the options. Default settings filter by “Relevance”, but when I filter by “View Count” we now see the most popular results for “diy”.

Notice that the top result below the In-Search ads is a YouTube channel for Bethany Mota with a subscriber base of over 7 million. She has over 400 videos and was active 1 week ago. We can assume she is a consistent YouTuber and could be a valuable resource for our ad placement if we want to target this market.

Below her channel page link we see a video “Play doh Scoops ‘n Treats”. It has over 62 million views! By clicking on this video I can see if there is advertising available.

The advertiser for Kinetic Sand has done a great job of placing their advertisement on this particular video. In most cases, the people who are watching video content about Play-Doh are interested in a similar product and thus make for a relevant ad experience.

What’s really important here is the “More” tab under this video — the included “Statistics” option gives a ton of useful information for your search.
In particular you are able to see daily stats about the amount of traffic this video receives. This will be valuable when you’re considering exposure to your ad with placement. If you decide this is a good video to add to your list of placements, simply copy the URL and add that link to a placement document for your list of potential video placements.

What if you want to broaden your net and find other influencers on a mass scale?

Let’s go back to the main results for our search term “diy” and this time filter by “Channel”. Now YouTube filters channels that we can potentially target with our ads. The default results will appear under “Relevance” but we can also filter by “View Count” to see channels that have higher viewership.

Once you find a potential channel simply click on their channel page and perform the same tactic of making sure they have recent and relevant content to determine if they are a match for your video ad placement.

If they appear to have content relevant to your offer then click on some of their videos to see if they have monetization available.

Check out this DIY Backpack tutorial.

Because monetization is enabled, this channel would be a potential location to place our ads.

Ready to take another step in securing your spot ahead of competitors’ content?

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Related Channels on the right side of YouTube channels is another gold mine aimed at stealing your competitors’ audience.

Assuming the YouTuber hasn’t hidden this section, you can go through and look for similar channels to the one you are evaluating. In this example I am on the DIYReady YouTube channel and YouTube has determined that Steve Ramsey is a similar channel based on the types of people who watch both content.

His YouTube channel shows us that we could continue the search by looking at other channels similar to his content by performing this same method. For now I’ll click on some of his content to see if he has monetization available.

Since this video does have monetization enabled, we could add it to our placement document as a possible location to advertise.

Once you have a list of different videos you want to use for your placements, it’s time to create a YouTube Ad campaign.

For this you’ll need an AdWords account and have it linked to your YouTube channel. If you haven’t done that yet, you can follow the steps here, and then view your AdWords dashboard.

Now the fun part…

When you sign into your AdWords account click on “All video campaigns” and create a new campaign.

Give your campaign a name and set your budget.
Under “Delivery Method” select “YouTube Videos”.

I left the location open, though you might choose to focus on the United States and Canada.

Next, choose the video you are using for your ad placement.
Make sure you include the destination URL — ideally it has tracking and includes a URL that is visible to the user.

I chose to leave the ad schedule blank as I want it to run all times and days of the week.

The Ad rotation depends on if you are using multiple ads and Google finds a winner or best performing ad. It will then choose to favor this ad variation.
Use the Rotate evenly so it can collect more data between your variations. For the ad frequency you can decide how many times you want a single person to see your ad.

Most users should decrease the “Mobile” views by 100%. Devices such as iPads and iPhones are not capable of clicking on your ad. If your purpose is to simply run a branding campaign, leave it as is. If not, decrease the feature by 100%.

Next, choose your Target. Use “Narrow your targeting (optional)” drop down feature and select “Placements”.

Now copy all the URL links you added to your placement document earlier.

Paste them into the Placements section of your targeting.
Save your targeting and let the ad run.

Once you do this you can go back to the bidding and determine how much you are willing to pay per view.

Keep in mind you will want to bid a few cents over to help ensure you gain visibility over your advertising competitors.

Once you begin to collect enough data you will see trends on what placements channels are best performing and you can choose to either keep them running or turn them off.

Depending on the niche, you will want to check weekly to see if new YouTube channels are being created that are ideal for your video ad placements.
Are you ready to go out and steal your competitors’ audience?

Advertisers Find Sneaky New Way to Make You Watch Commercials

2014-10-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

by Corey Eridon

I don't know if this is innovative, annoying, or a little bit of both. (Probably a little bit of both, but let me know what you think.)

I was buying tickets for Bruce in the U.S.A. last night through Ticketmaster. I was doing this because Bruce Springsteen isn't touring in the U.S. anytime soon, and I needed something to tide me over til his next tour.
But I digress.

So, I was buying the tickets, and I get to the captcha part of the online ticket purchasing process that we're all familiar with. It usually looks something like this:

Confusing, but most of us can get it right on the third of fourth refresh. (We're a highly adaptable species.) I didn't see that familiar captcha this time, though. I saw this:

And if you think it's just a plain ol' ad, you're wrong -- when you click on the copy to "reveal the security code," a video starts to play advertising Cascade. You're then instructed to "listen" for the security code, which resulted in me hunching down at my computer like an idiot to catch the secret phrase. My feeling of idiocy only multiplied when I looked at my screen and saw this:

Heh. Triple Action Formula. Didn't know you were just gonna slap it on the screen. Got it.

What Makes This Weird

Good on Ticketmaster for finding a way to make a few extra bucks, I guess. But a couple things made me feel icky about this:

1) The phrasing makes it seem like you don't want to help stop ticket scalpers if you don't dream about Cascade Triple Action Formula, and implies that the folks at Cascade are personally fighting the good fight against scalpers.

2) They trick you into listening to the ad instead of just looking for the code to type in.

But you're not really listening because, if you're like me, you're freaking out so much about not missing the secret code. (It's a secret, after all! What if they're hiding it in the commercial?!)

But, I have to hand it to them -- "they" found a corner of the internet to 1) sneak in advertising where it hasn't been snuck before, and 2) sneak it in a place where you actually do have to pay attention to it.Kind of.

Have you seen these ads elsewhere? (My colleague found one a couple weeks ago on Songza.) What do you think of them?

Emergency Hotline 911 receives a 'pizza order' from a lady who needs help

2014-10-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

A woman who is a victim of domestic violence called 911 for help but was unable to directly discuss of what was happening to her so she used a code-like conversation by starting to order a pizza.
Fortunately, the dispatcher did not take her call lightly, instead he became intuitive and analyzed her situation very carefully.
Read the transcript of the conversation between the victim and the dispatcher and noticed how well their thoughts were connected to each other.

"911, where is your emergency?"

"123 Main St."

"Ok, what's going on there?"

"I'd like to order a pizza for delivery." (oh great, another prank call).

"Ma'am, you've reached 911"

"Yeah, I know. Can I have a large with half pepperoni, half mushroom and peppers?"

"Ummm…. I'm sorry, you know you've called 911 right?"

"Yeah, do you know how long it will be?"

"Ok, Ma'am, is everything ok over there? do you have an emergency?"

"Yes, I do."

"..And you can't talk about it because there's someone in the room with you?" (moment of realization)

"Yes, that's correct. Do you know how long it will be?"

"I have an officer about a mile from your location. Are there any weapons in your house?"

"Nope."

"Can you stay on the phone with me?"

"Nope. See you soon, thanks"

According to the dispatcher, he checked the history of the address given by the lady and found out that there were records of multiple domestic violence from the previous calls.

Finally, the officer arrived at the house and immediately saw the lady in bad shape with her drunk boyfriend. Her partner was arrested for beating her.

The dispatcher said that she was intelligent to pull that kind of trick and that emergency call is the most memorable one for him.

Getting browser history using Javascript

2014-10-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

Getting browser history using Javascript

Something we discussed recently at work was using Javascript to obtain the browser history of a user visiting your website. It was deemed a little black-hat but I'm not afraid of such things, so I set about writing a quick script to sniff a user's history.

Why

I read a rumour on the Internet recently that Dell were using such a script to work out whether you've visited competitor websites; allowing them to put their best offers under your nose in an aim to get your business. So under the premise that you've got a website with known competitors, how do you know if your visitor has visited them? That's where my little script would come in handy.

What it does

You enter the URL's of your competitor's websites into a Javascript array and set a colour for visited links in the CSS. Then it's just a case of checking the colour of the A-tags on the page; if you've visited them I'll know about it. So let's start looking at the code...

XHTML

All I've done is create a really basic page that just has a container and a div with the ID of 'sniffer'. This is the div that I'll use for calculating whether various places have been visited. So the code is really basic here:

view plain copy to clipboard print ?

<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="sniffer">
</div>
If all the links remain blue and you don't get an alert box, visit one of the links on the list and refresh the page.
</div>
</body>
Sniffer is empty for now and I've just placed some instructions on the page in case you've not visited any of my test URLs.

CSS
The crucial thing to do is ensure that you're setting a color for both a:link and a:visited within the 'sniffer' div, this will ensure we can perform colour checks on them later. So all I've got is:
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1. #sniffer a:link
2. {
3. color:#0000FF;
4. }
6. #sniffer a:visited
7. {
8. color:#FF0000;
9. }
11. /*#sniffer
12. {
13. position:absolute;
14. left:-1000px;
15. }*/
17. So for regular links I'm telling them to be blue, whereas visited links are going to be red. Note that I've commented out the layout CSS for the #sniffer div; this would position it off-page so that visitors to the page wouldn't be able to see the list I'm checking. However I've commented it out so that (for demonstrative purposes) you can see what I'm checking.
  
  Javascript
  I'm using Mootools (yet again, no surprises there) for this, although you could do this with straight up prototype (or conventional Javascript probably). The framework doesn't matter too much, I'm just using Mootools because I have it handy and I know the selectors off the top of my head. Let's look at the script:
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  1. var competitors = new Array();
  2. competitors[0] = 'http://www.dell.com';
  3. competitors[1] = 'http://www.google.com';
  4. competitors[2] = 'http://www.yahoo.com';
  5. competitors[3] = 'http://www.ebay.com';
  7. var visitedPlaces = new Array();
  9. var visitedLink = '#ff0000';
  All I'm doing here is setting up the array of competitors; it can be as many items as you like but in this instance I've used 4 common URLs. I'm then creating an array that will store which links you've actually visited, as well as setting the colour I'm looking for. This colour is the one that we defined in the CSS earlier, note that the hexadecimal characters are lower case, this is important because of how Javascript reads the colour codes for items; it won't match if you leave it uppercase (not without doing a conversion anyway).
  view plain copy to clipboard print ?
  1. window.addEvent('domready', function()
  2. {
  3. var snifferContainer = $('sniffer');
  4. var snifferUL = new Element('ul').injectInside(snifferContainer);
  6. for(var i=0; i<competitors.length; i++)
  7. {
  8. var snifferLI = new Element('li',{'id':'snifferli'+i }).injectInside(snifferUL);
  9. var snifferA = new Element('a', { 'href':competitors[i]}).injectInside(snifferLI);
  10. snifferA.innerHTML = competitors[i];
  12. if(snifferA.getStyle('color') == visitedLink)
  13. {
  14. var currentPointer = visitedPlaces.length;
  15. visitedPlaces[currentPointer+1] = competitors[i];
  16. alert(visitedPlaces[currentPointer+1]+' has been visited');
  17. }
  18. }
  19. });
  As usual I'm initialising my JS on domready. I'm setting the sniffer container and creating an unordered list HTML element, which I then inject inside of the 'sniffer' div (there's no real need to do this, I just like using UL's to keep my work tidy). I'm then iterating through the competitors array and creating a new list item for each one, with a link to that URL (which are both then injected inside of the UL). I'm then setting the innerHTML of the element so that we can see something on the page (again, no real need to do this because realistically you're not going to show this to the user).
  
  All I'm doing after that is using the Mootools element.getStyle() function to obtain the 'color' attribute for the A-tag I've just injected. If the link colour matches the hexadecimal item set in the 'visitedLink' variable, then you've visited this URL. All I'm doing at this point is alerting that information out (so you can see it's working) and adding it to the array of visited places.
  
  Done! Nice, quick and easy but it could come in useful for increasing conversions on your website. It's a little underhand (read unethical) but that's business for you.

Costco shoppers use gift cards to avoid membership fees

2014-10-29T05:17:00.001-07:00

Intrepid shoppers have found a loophole to skirt Costco's membership fees.

Costco, a membership-based wholesale retailer, offers discounts for consumers willing to pay an annual fee, which ranges from $55 to $110.

But customers can avoid those fees by paying with a gift card. Only members can purchase the cards, but anyone can use them.

A quick online search turns up blogs and websites that encourage customers to avoid membership fees by using gift cards instead.

Patrons who pay for a membership, like Scott Cowie, say this seems unfair.

"It sounds a bit annoying that I have to pay a membership to Costco and people can just give gift cards and give them to anyone they want without an extra fee being applied," said Cowie.

Cowie thinks the loophole could be abused. He thinks members could charge a small fee in exchange for purchasing the cards for non-members.

A Costco representative told the CBC that people rarely take advantage of the gift card system. If it is, the representative said, the company addresses it.

Consumer advocate Anna Wallner suspects the loophole might not last for much longer.

"I think people will always be looking for the advantage, but eventually if people are taking advantage of the system then I'm sure at some point Costco or whoever the retailer is will change the system," says Wallner.

Wallner says consumers who try to save a few dollars by getting friends or family to buy them Costco gift cards may want to reconsider.

"If you're spending a whole lot of time getting other people to buy gift cards for you, then you need to consider what your time is worth," says Wallner.

Was your email read? HOW to find out!

2014-08-26T09:47:00.001-07:00

We'll show you how to check if that important e-mail you sent was actually read by the recipient. The process is fairly straight forward and you need to make sure you are using a mail client with HTML turned on.

Here is the link to TAIL MAIL: http://mobileshortcut.com/TAILMAIL/ (then click FREE USAGE).

Once at the site, generate a code and copy the hidden image into the bottom of your email.

Send off your message and give it some time to be read. You can now paste your unique code into the look-up box and and get up to the minute information on the status of your email.

Stalkerish Way To Get Back Links (Sort Of Creepy But It May Work)

2012-08-29T04:29:00.002-07:00

I just read the transcript of 8 Link Building Tips – Whiteboard Friday by SEO Moz and wanted share with you one interesting method of getting a popular blogger’s attention and building a relationship with them. From this you may get a mention on their blog with a backlink and guest post opportunities. Here’s what SEO Moz says: This could be a little bit stalkerish, but it’s cool. Amazon have a facility where you can search for other people’s wish lists using their email address. So if there’s a really good blogger who you want to impress, put their email address into Amazon Wish Lists and see if they’ve got one. If they have, maybe send them a gift with a little note saying it’s from your company, you really appreciate the work they do and the blog posts they’re putting out. It’s a great way of building a relationship. They’re going to reply to you. They’re going to say thank you.

How to do it

Go to http://www.amazon.com/wishlist (make sure you’re not signed in to your account)

HAT TIP NICK'S TRAFFIC TRICKS

Google Tip...for EVERY phone!

2012-07-18T03:45:00.001-07:00

Find deals on eBay using misspelled auctions tool

2012-07-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

Millions of listings are added to eBay every day. Many of them contain typos or misspellings. Savvy eBay buyers and sellers peruse these listings to find deals and inexpensive inventory to resell on eBay.

Here is how it works. Use a tool such as Typohound. Enter the correct spelling of an item or brand name. Let's use Burberry as an example. Typohound will return a list of all possible misspellings and then pop these words into the eBay search engine.

The result - a list of eBay listings that have any variation of the word Burberry. For example, click here to see a Burberry crested blazer up for sale at only $29. The seller has misspelled the brand name BURBERY (missing an R). You could very well purchase this item, have it shipped to you, re-take the photos, list the item, and sell it for $50-$60. (According to HammerTap, the average selling price for a Burberry blazer in EUC condition is $55. This one has the crest, so it will probably go for more.)

How easy is that for finding inventory without leaving home? Misspelling tools are free to use and you can find some incredible deals in the process. Like this tip? Check out Jim Cockrum's My Silent Team for more creative eBay selling strategies

Find (Almost) Anybody’s Email Address

2012-07-11T04:47:00.002-07:00

With great power, comes great responsibility.

I’m entrusting this tool to you with the understanding that Distilled readers will use it sensibly.

When doing outreach and linkbuilding, it’s often more effective to be able to send someone an email directly, rather than trying to use a contact form. Instead of hunting through a website to find someone’s email address, this process will speed things up and help you find the address you’re looking for.

(This video contains text, menus and spreadsheet cells worth seeing. I recommend you watch it full screen, and in the highest quality that your internet connection will allow.)

The important things you’ll need for running through this process:

A Gmail account, if you don’t have one already
The Rapportive plugin from Rapportive.com to get rich contact information inside Gmail
The Google Doc spreadsheet at bit.ly/name2email

It’s worth mentioning: this tool ONLY uses publicly available data (Rapportive has a published policy on data and privacy) and it can’t help you find the email address of people who want to keep it hidden.

Hat Tip: http://www.distilled.net

A sneaky way to get money off your groceries

2012-07-08T05:16:00.003-07:00

How I managed to shop at Ocado for less than the exact same shop at Tesco...

In my household, my long-suffering boyfriend (soon-to-be husband) does most of the cooking.

This is partly because he’s a great cook, and partly because I’m a terrible cook. We are a perfect match!

To try to make up for my distinct lack of domestic goddess capabilities, I take responsibility for doing the supermarket shop every week. Which, being a sometimes busy and sometimes lazy person, I like to do online, via a site called mysupermarket.com.

I like this site because you can easily compare the price of, say, a bag of white seedless grapes with a box of white seedless grapes, and see which one is cheaper that week per kilogram. It also adds up the cost of your trolley in different supermarkets, so you can see whether it would be cheaper to shop that week at Asda instead of Tesco, due to the special offers that particular supermarket is hosting that day.

Now, I’ve been using this site for years and when I first started, supermarket discount codes were plentiful. A quick search on hotukdeals.com would reveal a dozen valid codes, each offering either free delivery or £5 off, shared on the forum by kind frugal tipsters like you and me.

Sadly, it seemed the supermarkets have wised up to this practice, and nowadays it’s rare to find a valid voucher code for anything other than your first online shop.

So what?

It always irritates me when firms treat their new customers better than old ones (and vice versa).

The supermarkets are being very clever here because it’s a lot of hassle to start afresh on a new account. You have to do individual searches for each item you want to buy, and can easily miss things off the list. I find it can take as much as 40 minutes to do a comprehensive online shop if you start from scratch.

By contrast, if you log in to an account you have used previously to do an online shop, all the items you have bought are saved as ‘favourites’ and on mysupermarket, you can literally start from your last trolley, no matter which supermarket you bought from.

So it takes seconds and just a few clicks to stock up on regular purchases.

Rachel Robson rounds up five ways to cut your food bills.

This means that, apart from switching brands here and there wherever there’s special offers or cheeky price cuts, I can generally whizz through my entire weekly shop in about 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, because I am a loyal customer using an account I have used before, that means I don’t qualify for any vouchers. Boo hiss!

The good news

The good news is, last week I discovered a way to get around this.

In fact it had been staring me in the face for years. I’m sure some of you already know about this, but for those of you who don’t, here’s how to use a ‘first online shop’ discount voucher without going through all the hassle of setting up a new account and filling your trolley from scratch for the first time:

Use the favourites stored in mysupermarket.

Remember, mysupermarket stores all your favourites, regardless of which supermarket you have used previously. So if you change your account details with Ocado, your favourites with Tesco will still be there, and you can instantly switch your trolley into Ocado with the click of a button.

I tried this at the weekend when a £15 off Ocado voucher fell out of a newspaper. (There is also a permanent £15 off your first shop voucher on the Ocado website.) I love shopping at Ocado, which offers the same groceries as Waitrose – I just hate paying for the crazy prices they charge. And I felt it was wrong that new customers should benefit when I could not. So I made up my mind to use that voucher one way or the other!

In the end, all I had to do was set up a new account with Ocado using a different email address to the one I’d already registered. That took approximately one minute. Here's how I did it:

Registering as a new customer

Amazingly, Ocado allow new customers to register with an existing delivery address and name. The only thing the supermarket doesn't allow you to do is to register with an existing email address.

But you don't even have to go through the hassle of setting up a new email account if you have a gmail account, because Ocado fails to recognise gmail.com's plus addressing system.

This means you can simply use your existing email address at gmail.com (which can already be registered with Ocado), but add, for example, '+ocado1' to the bit before gmail.com. So if your existing address was lovemoneyreader@gmail.com, you'd change it to lovemoneyreader+ocado1@gmail.com. This will be interpreted by Ocado as a new email address of a new customer - even though all the emails it sends you will go to the inbox of your existing address (lovemoneyreader@gmail.com).

After using this feature of my gmail account to complete the registration process at Ocado, I went back to mysupermarket.com and took another minute to change the log-in details for Ocado on there – and hey presto! I was a new Ocado customer and could use the voucher code.

This meant that including delivery, my trolley at Ocado actually cost me 10% less than the exact same shop would have cost me at Tesco – and the quality of the fruit and vegetables was far higher.

Not bad for two minutes’ work...

Keyword Research With Wikipedia? (Sneaky method inside)

2012-07-08T03:49:00.001-07:00

Yup, Wikipedia can help you with your keyword research. Specifically, you can learn how much traffic you can reasonably expect to get if you rank in the top 10 in Google for your target keyword phrase. read full article on

Read full article on Nickstraffictricks

Google Maps Head Indoors in the UK

2012-07-04T02:16:00.004-07:00

If you’re traveling in the UK, now you can not only find directions to your destination using Google Maps — you can also find directions to things you’re looking for once you’re inside a number of locations.

Available at some locations in the US since last year, Google is launching indoor maps for Android devices for locations in the UK beginning Tuesday. A part of the standard Google Maps app, indoor maps will appear when you zoom in on a specific portion of a map.

Once you’re zoomed in to a floor plan you can then search for what you’re looking for within that plan. For instance, you might zoom in on a train station to get an indoor map of the station and help finding the closest restroom or coffee shop. At a department store, you might use the indoor map functionality to find the shoe or children’s sections — even if those places are different floors in the building than the one you’re currently on.

More than 40 venues in the UK currently have their floor plans available, ranging from places like the British Museum and National Theater to the O2 Arena and Paddington Station.

You can check out a full list of supported locations on Google’s website. If you’re a building owner you can also upload the floor plan for your building to be included in a future release.

Are there places you go that you wish you could access an indoor map of? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

HAT TIP: http://mashable.com

TURN TEXT UPSIDE DOWN

2012-07-03T09:19:00.002-07:00

TURN TEXT UPSIDE DOWN - CLICK HERE

Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People

2012-07-03T07:45:00.004-07:00

Normally when you think of "bad design", you think of laziness or mistakes. These are known as design anti-patterns. Dark Patterns are different – they are not mistakes, they are carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology, and they do not have the user’s interests in mind

darkpatterns.org

Sneaky Ways Websites Get You to Spend More

2012-07-03T07:35:00.003-07:00

By Kate Ashford

By now, you probably know that brick-and-mortar stores manipulate you-from the displays to the music to the giant "SALE" signs. But online shopping feels more straightforward. After all, you're in control of the experience, right? Think again. "Marketers are constantly trying to influence us and get us to click on things," says Deborah Mitchell, a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The environment is absolutely about persuasion." Here, experts share ten website ploys meant to lighten your wallet. Photo by Getty Images

1. There's a high-priced item in the mix of products.

If you're idly browsing, a product with a higher price can make a mid-priced option seem more appealing. You may not even notice the pricier piece because, if a site is smart, the cost difference will seem like a reasonable step up. So how does this tactic get you to spend more? "People don't want to buy the most expensive thing, but they don't want to buy the cheapest thing either," says Mitchell. "They believe that avoiding the extremes is safer." Although you may not notice this trick, try not to reject less expensive products simply because they don't cost as much.

2. Items are displayed in a particular order.

"Consumers tend to buy things they see early in a list," says Vicki Morwitz, PhD, a research professor of marketing at the Stern School of Business at New York University in New York City. Retailers use this knowledge to their benefit. The first few items you see may net the company a bigger profit, or there may be excess inventory of those things. They may even be items the site has found you're more likely to buy based on your shopping history (more on that in #8). Take advantage of sites' sorting options when they exist, and order a page's inventory by the criteria that works for you-lowest price to highest price, for instance, or best rating to worst.

3. Sites charge extra for shipping.

You may think that shipping fees are exactly equal to the cost of mailing your item. Not so. "Retailers make money from shipping and handling fees," says Morwitz. And it's tough to spot a bad deal, since some retailers have a legitimate reason for charging more-a warehouse that's farther from you geographically, for instance, or a not-so-hot contract with a shipping company. The best thing to do: Use Google Shopping to compare the total cost of an item, including shipping, between sites, because some may charge less to ship but more for the product, or vice versa. Also, search a site like RetailMeNot.com for coupons before you buy-you might be able to find a code for free or reduced shipping.

4. Shipping costs pop up last.

If you've clicked through eight screens and entered your billing address, shipping address and credit card info before you see shipping costs, you're less likely to give up on the order, even if the shipping fees are higher than expected, says Lars Perner, PhD, an assistant professor of clinical marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. If shipping costs seem high, it's worth your time to check at least one more retailer for a comparison price before you hit "submit."

5. Your subscription is automatically renewed.

Have you ever signed up for a 30-day trial of something, only to forget about it and get charged the full subscription price? "Many people don't get around to canceling it," says Perner. And the retailer is counting on that. Same goes for subscriptions that automatically renew at the end of a cycle-and it's not just magazines and newspapers that do this. Websites that charge for access (such as eHarmony), membership programs (such as the one at Barnes & Noble) and software that expires after, say, 12 months all have auto-renewal options. If you sign up for one of these, put a reminder in your calendar to cancel before the renewal date. Where possible, un-check the option to auto-renew. But if you're charged for something you never meant to re-order, call the retailer. They may issue you a refund.

6. The retailer emails you directly.

If you've ever purchased anything online, you've probably received the retailer's follow-up promotional emails. Every time one of those pops up in your inbox, it gets that store into your brain. "It's just a matter of time until one of those emails arrives when you have time to shop around," says Perner. Unsubscribe from mailing lists when you can, or at least have those emails filtered into a separate folder you can check when it is time to shop.

7. There's a limited-time offer on the deal.

There are only six units left! You can only get this deal today! "These spur people to act quickly," says Perner. When you feel that quantities are finite or that an offer is only good for a particular period of time, there's a sense of urgency to make a purchase. What if the site never offers free shipping again? What if this is the only time this item will be on sale? What if they sell out? If you were going to buy an item anyway, feel free to jump on the sale. But if you find yourself snagging one-day-only deals left and right, even though you have no interest in tango lessons or dinner at the upscale sushi restaurant in town, you may want to unsubscribe from the daily deals emails.

8. Your shopping experience has been personalized.

Some sites greet you by name. Some suggest products you might like, based on past purchases. You may even get special offers. "It all fosters a closer relationship between the consumer and the retailer," explains Mitchell. For instance, fire up your Amazon account and the site has "recommendations" for you. While it feels convenient, it's simply one more way to persuade you to buy something else. "If a company customizes well, it can highlight things of interest to you that you might not have found on your own," says Morwitz. If you'd rather not be tempted to buy those suggested items, log out of your profile on the site and try shopping as a new customer.

9. Sales are advertised on the home page.

"People tend to 'anchor' on the first price they see," says Mitchell. "So if a retailer puts something that's inexpensive up front, people think that whole website is a great deal." But that's not necessarily the case. In fact, it's common for sites to put a few things on sale and bump up prices on the rest of their inventory, notes Mitchell. Make sure you comparison shop elsewhere before settling on something.

10. The site saves your credit card info.

How convenient! You don't have to re-type your credit card number, since it's saved in your profile from the last time you shopped. "It makes it that much easier for consumers to push the 'buy' button without a second thought," says Morwitz. If you feel like you're impulse-shopping because it's so simple to click "submit," consider checking out as a guest instead of creating a profile on a site, when you can. That way, your information won't be stored for your next online shopping excursion. But if your habit is in check, go ahead and use the stored billing info feature, suggests Morwitz-it'll save you time and the effort of digging out your credit card.

Article originally appeared on WomansDay.com.

.•:¨¨:•.WONDERFUL¨¨RECOMMEND¨¨BUYER .•:¨¨:•.

2012-07-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen this really k.e.w.l. looking feedback??? AND WONDERED "HOW DID THEY DO THAT???" WELL, DON'T WONDER ANYMORE. IT IS ALL RIGHT HERE FOR YOU IN HERE AND IS SUPER EASY & LOTS OF FUN. Below is 101 Positive Styles for you to Leave as a SELLER & as a BUYER!!!

50 for buyers to leave for seller & 51 for sellers to leave for buyers

~~~you could also change a few letters around & start creating your own fun ~~~

....Enjoy

FOR SELLERS TO LEAVE FOR BUYERS:

1. »-(¯`v´¯)-»AWESOME eBayer»-(¯`v´¯)-»COME BACK ANYTIME»-(¯`v´¯)-»

2. *¨¨*:•.FIVE•:*¨¨*:•.STAR.•:*¨¨*:•.EBAYER.•:*¨¨*:•.

3. .•:*¨¨*:•.WONDERFUL*¨¨*RECOMMEND*¨¨*BUYER .•:*¨¨*:•.

4. ,¸¸,ø¤ºGREATº¤ø,¸*¸,ø¤ºBUYERº¤ø,¸*¸,ø¤ºTHANXº¤ø,¸¸**

5. (¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•SUPER STAR eBayer•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

6. ø¤ºTOPº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºEBAYERº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºTHANKSº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºA+º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºA+º¤ø

7. (¯`'•.¸GREAT EBAYER ¸.•'´¯) (¯`'•.¸COME BACK REAL SOON¸.•'´¯)

8. I»-(¯`v´¯)-»THIS BUYER!FAST PAY!SUPER SWEET!»-(¯`v´¯)-»

9. .•:*¨¨*:•..•:* ABSOLUTELY STELLAR EBAYER*:•..•:*¨¨*:•.

10. ‹(•¿•)›SEE FOR YOURSELF THIS SUPER BUYER‹(•¿•)›

11. ‹(•¿•)› THANK YOU! FAST PAY! SUPER BUYER! ‹(•¿•)›

12. <>< ...HAVING THIS BUYER AS YOUR OWN IS A BLESSING...><>

13. PERFECTº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºEBAYERº¤ø,¸¸,¸,øºø,¸,ø¤ºHIGHLYº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºRECOMMENDED

14. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤øøø•• E•X•C•E•L•L•E•N•T ¤¤ E•B•A•Y•E•R ••øøø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸

15. -:¦:-•:*'"*:•.-:¦:-•* FABULOUS * -:¦:- * HIGHLY RECOMMEND

-:¦:-•:*'"*:•.-:¦:-

16. -:¦:-•:*'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Unbelievable Buyer...WOW!!! *•-:¦:-•:*''''*:•-:¦:-

17. .•:*¨¨*:•.YOU.•:*¨¨*:•.ARE.•:*¨¨*:•.A.•:*¨¨*:•.SUPER.•:*¨¨*:•.STAR.•:*¨¨*:•.

18. ‹(•¿•)› º°`°º¤AWESOME eBayer! Thank You°`°º¤‹(•¿•)› º°`°

19. «:::P:::» «:::E:::» «:::R:::» «:::F:::» «:::E:::» «:::C:::» «:::T:::» THANKS

20. ••A•.•´¯`•.•W•.•´¯`•.•E•.•´¯`•.•S•.•´¯`•.•O•.•´¯`•.•M•.•´¯`•.•E••

21. .•:*¨¨*:•.A.•:*¨¨*:•.FIVE.•:*¨¨*:•.STAR.•:*¨¨*:•.EBAYER.•:*¨¨*:•.

22. »-(¯`v´¯)-»×º°”TRUELY AN AN ASSET TO EBAY”°º×»-(¯`v´¯)-»

23. "*:•.-:¦:--:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•*Thanx"*:•.-:¦:--:¦:-•:*"'"*:•.-:¦:-•*

24. ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°COME AGAINº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø

25. (¯`'•ø,¸¸ ‹(•¿•)›¸.,ø'¯)Thanxya(¯`'•ø,¸¸ ‹(•¿•)›¸.,ø'¯)

26. (•¿•)YOU MAKE(•¿•)BUYERS(•¿•)LOOK GOOD(•¿•)

27. ‹(•¿•)›SEE WHAT AN AWESOME BUYER THIS IS‹(•¿•)›

28. ~P~ ~E~ ~R~ ~F~ ~E~ ~C~ ~T~

29. »-(¯`v´¯)-» ~THANK YOU~ GREAT eBayer »-(¯`v´¯)-»

30. §§§ (¯`'•.¸ §§ (¯`'•.¸ § ~ * ~ SUPER BUYER ~ * ~ § ¸.•'´¯) §§ ¸.•'´¯) §§§

31. «:::P:::»«:::E:::»«:::R:::»«:::F:::»«:::E:::»«:::C:::»«:::T:::»«:::!:::»

32. ¸.•'´¯)*(¯`'•.¸.•'´¯)**THANK** YOU**(¯`'•.¸.•'´¯)*(¯`'•.¸

33. *-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•:*THIS*•-:*EBAYER*:-•*IS*:•-:*ROCKIN'-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-*

34. ...<>< BLESSINGS ...<>< EBAYER ...<><

35. ,¸¸,ø¤º° One of the Best Buyers EVER!!!º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°°

36. :¦:-•:*"*:•.-:¦:-•*EXCELLENT

BUYER!*•-:¦:-•:*'''*:•-:¦:-THANKS*•-:¦:-•:*''**•

37. :¦:-•:*Smooth'"Transaction*:•.-:¦:-•*Great eBayer*•-:¦:-•:*Thank You*•-:¦

38. »(¯`v´¯)»LOVE»(¯`v´¯)»THIS»(¯`v´¯)»BUYER»(¯`v´¯)»

39. (¯`'•.¸TERIFFIC*(¯`'•.THANK YOU.•'´¯)*BUYER¸.•'´¯)

40. .•:*¨¨*:•.EXCELLENT.•:*¨¨*:•.BUYER.•:*¨¨*:•.THANX.•:*¨¨*:•.

41. «E» «X» «C» «E» «L» «L» «E» «N» «T»

42. «A» «W» «E» «S» «O» «M» «E» «!» «!» «!»

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44. ..¸.•´¯)¸.•´¯).SUPER..¸.•´¯)¸.•´¯).BUYER..¸.•´¯)¸.•´¯).

45. <3.. *..<3..*..<3 Super eBayer. Thank You <3 ..*..<3.. *..<3

46. *-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•:*fast*•-:*pay*:-•*SUPER*:•-:*eBayer-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-*

47. »-(¯`v´¯)-»This buyer is what eBay is all about»-(¯`v´¯)-»

48. (¯`'•.¸AwEsOmE SuPeR TeRiFFiC BuYeR¸.•'´¯)

49. .•:*¨¨*:•.Thank You!.•:*¨¨*:•. Highly Recommend•:*¨¨*:•.Asset to eBay.•:*¨¨*:•

50. °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ºGREAT BUYER THANK YOUº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º

FOR BUYERS TO LEAVE FOR SELLERS:

51. -:¦:-P-:¦:-E-:¦:-R-:¦:-F-:¦:-E-:¦:-C-:¦:-T-:¦:-

52. -:¦:-A-:¦:-W-:¦:-E-:¦:-S-:¦:-O-:¦:-M-:¦:-E-:¦:-

53. -:¦:-SUPER-:¦:-STAR-:¦:-SELLER-:¦:-THANX-:¦:-

54. *¨¨*:•.FIVE•:*¨¨*:•.STAR.•:*¨¨*:•.SELLER.•:*¨¨*:•.

55. .•:*¨¨*:•.WONDERFUL*¨¨*RECOMMEND*¨¨*SELLER .•:*¨¨*:•.

56. (¯`'•.¸(¯`'•SUPER STAR eBay SELLER•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

57. I»-(¯`v´¯)-»THIS SELLER! GR8 DEAL! THANX!»-(¯`v´¯)-»

58. .•:*¨¨*:•..•:* ABSOLUTELY STELLAR SELLER*:•..•:*¨¨*:•.

59. ‹(•¿•)›SEE FOR YOURSELF‹(•¿•)›SUPER SELLER‹(•¿•)›

60. ‹(•¿•)› THANK YOU! GREAT DEAL! SUPER SELLER! ‹(•¿•)›

61. <>< ...BUT FROM THIS SELLER. THEY ARE A BLESSING...><>

62. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤øøø•• E•X•C•E•L•L•E•N•T ¤¤ S•E•L•L•E•R ••øøø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸

63. -:¦:-•:*'"*:•.-:¦:-•*FABULOUS*-:¦:-*SELLER*-:¦:-•:*'"*:•.-:¦:-

64. -:¦:-•:*'"*:•.-:¦:-•* Unbelievable Seller...WOW!!! *•-:¦:-•:*''''*:•-:¦:-

65. «:::P:::» «:::E:::» «:::R:::» «:::F:::» «:::E:::» «:::C:::» «:::T:::» SELLER!

66. *:•.YOU.•:*¨¨*:•.ARE.•:*¨¨*:•.A.•:*¨¨*:•.STAR.•:*¨¨*:•.SELLER.•:*

67. ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°THANXº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤

68. »-(¯`v´¯)-»×º°”WONDERFUL SELLER”°º×»-(¯`v´¯)-»

69. (•¿•)YOU MAKE(•¿•)SELLERS(•¿•)LOOK GOOD(•¿•)

70. ¯`•.•#1•.•´¯`•.•S•.•´¯`•.•E•.•´¯`•.•L•.•´¯`•.•L•.•´¯`•.•E•.•´¯`•.•R•.•´¯

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72. *-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•:*THIS*•-:*SELLER*:-:*ROCKS'*-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-*

73. ...<><BLESSINGS ...<>< 2 U SELLER...<><

74. ‹(•¿•)›SEE WHAT AN AWESOME SELLER THIS IS‹(•¿•)›

75. ,¸¸,ø¤º° One of the Best Sellers EVER!!!º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°°

76. »(¯`v´¯)»LOVE»(¯`v´¯)»THIS»(¯`v´¯)»SELLER»(¯`v´¯)»

77. (¯`'•.¸TERIFFIC*(¯`'•.THANK YOU.•'´¯)*SELLER¸.•'´¯)

78. .•:*¨¨*:•.EXCELLENT.•:*¨¨*:•.SELLER.•:*¨¨*:•.THANX.•:*¨¨*:•.

79. .¸.•´¯)¸.•´¯).SUPER..¸.•´¯)¸.•´¯).SELLER..¸.•´¯)¸.•´¯).

80. <3.. *..<3..*Super eBay Seller. Thank You*..<3.. *..<3

81. »-(¯`v´¯)-»This seller is what eBay is all about»-(¯`v´¯)-»

82. (¯`'•.¸AwEsOmE SuPeR TeRiFFiC SeLLeR¸.•'´¯)

83. .•:*¨¨*:•.Thank You!.•:*¨¨*:••:*¨¨*:•.Asset to eBay.•:*¨¨*:•

84. ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ºGR8 SELLER¤THANK YOUº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º

85. (¯`'•ø,¸¸(•¿•)¸.,ø'¯)TERIFFIC SELLER(¯`'•ø,¸¸(•¿•)¸.,ø'¯)

86. (¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•PERFECT TRANSACTION•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

87. (¯`'•.¸(¯`'•FIRST CLASS SELLER•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

88. (¯`'•.¸(¯`'•MY FAVORITE SELLER•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

89. »(¯`v´¯)»MY»(¯`v´¯)»FAV»(¯`v´¯)»SELLER»(¯`v´¯)»

90. »(¯`v´¯)»SWEET»(¯`v´¯)(¯`v´¯)»SELLER»(¯`v´¯)»

91. *-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•:*WORLDS*BEST*SELLER*-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•:*

92. (¯`'•.¸TOP*(¯`'•.THANK•YOU.•'´¯)*SELLER¸.•'´¯)

93. T-:¦:-E-:¦:-R-:¦:-I-:¦:-F-:¦:-F-:¦:-I-:¦:-C

94. (¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•GREAT DEAL•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)¸.•'´¯)

95. «:::H:::»«:::A:::»«:::P:::»« :::P:::»«:::Y:::»«:::BUYER:::»

96. •#1•.•´¯`•.•S•.•´¯`•.•E•.•´¯`•.•L•.•´¯`•.•L•.•´¯`•.•E•.•´¯`•.•R•

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98. -:¦:-T-:¦:-O-:¦:-P-:¦:-S-:¦:-A-:¦:-L-:¦:-E-:¦:-

99. (¯`'•.¸THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE DEAL¸.•'´¯)

100º. º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ºº¤ø,¸¸,¸,øºø,¸,ø¤ºº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤HIGHLY RECOMMENDED º.

101. *¨¨*:•.eBayeriffic.•:*¨¨*:•.Seller.•:*¨¨*:•.

Get Twitter to tell new users who YOU think they should follow

2012-07-02T05:37:00.001-07:00

Twitter will show new users a list YOU created of suggested people to follow! First, you need to create a special list (how to is below). Then, anyone clicking the “Sign Up” button when visiting YOUR Twitter page will be presented with YOUR list of suggested people to follow! All you have to do is creating a regular Twitter list, but include “#WelcomeToTwitter” (with no quotes) in the list’s description. Then when people join, Twitter will show them that list and recommend the people on it to follow! Here’s Twitter’s presentation on “Follow Recommendations:”

Sneaky Little Email Trick to Get People to Click Through on Your Links

2012-07-02T03:54:00.001-07:00

Today I would like to share a sneaky little email trick with you that I learned from Carl White, one of my husband’s mortgage coaches. This little trick gets people to click through on the links in your emails, which is what we all want. Right?

So let’s say you are sending out an email to your list in which you would like to introduce your subscribers to the new product line your company just released. And let’s say you want to send them to one of your company’s videos.

The easiest way to do this would be to add a hyperlink in the body of your email and hope that people will click on it and go through to the video. Right?

Well yes, that might work. But often subscribers don’t click on our links because they don’t like to be taken to another website. They think something like, “Oh, I don’t have time for this right now. I’ll just come back to it later.” And we all know how that goes. They’ll click away never to return again.

So how about a little teaser?

You know how the saying goes about how curiosity killed the cat? Not only cats, but people as well are curious by nature. Some more than others, but if we are tempted enough most of the time our curiosity gets the better of us. Wouldn’t you agree?

So, here’s a sneaky little email trick
to make your subscribers want to
take a look at your video and click through.

How about taking a screenshot of the video and add a little play button to the image to make it look like your video is actually embedded in your email. Then insert the image into your email and hyperlink it to your video, so when people click on the image they are directly taken to your video? (I use Aweber as my autoresponder, but you can use this little trick in any email client.)

In the example above I used SnagIt to take the screenshot and then using the arrow tool added a “Play Button” to the image.

You think someone would click on that?

I would, and I bet you a soda pop so would most people. There’s just something about that little “Play” button that makes us want to click on it. We just can’t help it. Especially if the image of the video itself is enticing.

Now, some people have their email client set so it doesn’t show images. So to make sure that these people still get a chance to click through to your video, include the hyperlink underneath your picture or somewhere in your text as well.

Go ahead try out this “sneaky little email trick” in your next campaign and check your stats to see if your click through rate doesn’t go up. I betcha it does.

To Your Massive Success!

Ilka Flood

HAT TIP: enlightenednetworker.com

Sneaky supermarket tricks you need to know

2012-06-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

Joanna Robinson

Gabrielle Marks/Flickr

It might seem like the economy is on the up but we’re not out of the woods yet – we’re all still trying to stretch our pounds as far as we can. With the the weekly shop still making a significant dent in our hard-earned cash and the supermarkets up to all kinds of tricks to get us to spend more money, what better time to learn how to beat them at their own game?

Make your food go further

First off, if you make some adjustments at home you won’t have to go to the supermarket as often, which is one easy way to solve the problem!

Keep a good supply of canned, frozen and dried foods you know everyone in your household will eat. That way, even when your fridge is looking a little sad, you’ll still have options and won’t have to rush out for extras.
According to the excellent Lovefoodhatewaste website a shocking one third of the food we buy in the UK gets thrown away. They explain that it’s largely related to dishing up portions which are too large. You can check out their portion planner to avoid this. They’ve also got some brilliant recipes for using up your leftovers, and they’re not complicated, so think before you throw!

Preventing food waste should be one of your top priorities; as well as making a significant environmental impact, you’ll theoretically be saving a third on your food bill!

Look out for their tricks

Obviously you can’t avoid the supermarket forever, (now isn’t that a nice thought?!), but you can be aware of all the marketing ploys and save some serious money on your shopping trip whilst helping your health and the environment.

Sweets and goodies near the checkout

Convenient isn’t it? Supermarkets love to prey on tired, hungry and irritable shoppers. But don’t get caught out like this. Never go shopping when you’re hungry. It might sound obvious, but you’ll end up buying things you don’t need, and more often than not they’ll be unhealthy and expensive.

Pretty packaging

Ooh, the Tesco Finest cheddar cheese looks delicious….but wait a second, it’s all about what’s on the outside.

The reason we don’t tend to buy a supermarket own brand produce is because they purposely package it to appear bland and unappealing. However own, basic or mid-range brands more often than not offer better value for money than Tesco Finest or Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference for instance.

As well as costing less, they’re also often equally as tasty. Why not test a few out on your family and see if they can tell the difference? OK, it doesn’t work in every case, but you’ll get to know which items really are the best value.

Special Offers

We all love a special offer. Big writing and colourful signs make us feel like we are winning and the supermarket is giving us something for free. This is NEVER true. Suppliers pay the supermarkets handsomely to have their products placed in a prime position and on special offer because they know it will get customers to buy their product, even if they wouldn’t usually.

Buy-one-get-one-free offers can be useful, but only if you were going to buy the product anyway. Buy two for £X can also be good, but always remember to look at how much the item costs individually. Then if the saving when buying two is significant, it’s probably worth getting the deal – only if you needed the item in the first place though!

If there isn’t much of a saving, ask yourself if you really need two. If you don’t, don’t get it.

Getting 50% extra deals, or a certain percentage, can seem appealing. However, these offers often tempt you to buy a brand you wouldn’t normally get. If this is the case, always look at the price per Kg or per 100g. This will allow you to compare exactly how much you are paying for the amount of product. You’ll often find that even though you get more with the brand on offer – you are actually paying more per Kg or 100g.

There is an easy way to avoid these – have a shopping list and stick to it. If items are on special offer and seem like a bargain, people are often coerced into buying them. If it isn’t something you use often, or something you were planning on buying anyway, don’t be tempted!

Real Offers – product reductions

Supermarket stock that doesn’t shift gets reduced – we’ve all seen it. These are not like the bargains supermarkets brag about, they are genuine bargains.

Take advantage of them by finding out when your local supermarket gets rid of its stock (this is usually later in the evenings or on Sundays). Much more produce will be sold at bargain prices as it reaches its use by date and most of the things you buy you’ll be able to freeze so you won’t have to use them straight away.

Dirty display tricks

Did you know that supermarkets stack their shelves tactically? They put the most expensive items right in your eye-line to make you spend more. Look above and below and you can often get better deals. This also works on your kids sitting in the trolley. Items are positioned so they reach out and grab the top of the range products. It’s no coincidence that the finest range of organic cereal is at their eyeline when you’re looking for own brand cornflakes…

The first way to get around this is look at the whole range and compare the prices. Don’t grab and run.

Secondly, if you can, leave the kids at home. That way they won’t distract you from finding the best value items or get their hearts set on the most expensive items.

Also, men are apparently more susceptible to eye catching displays in supermarkets – so be strong guys, or suggest that perhaps after all the weekly shop is a job for the ladies.

To show just how sneaky supermarket displays are we did a little research at our local Tesco.

	^Biscuits	^Butter	^Bread	^Crisps	^Cereal	^{Toilet Roll}
^{Top shelf}	65p	£1.29	61p	46p	85p	£1.96
^{above middle}	£1.28	£1.31	99p	30p
^{Middle shelf}	£2.54	£1.92	£1.14	51p	£2.32	£2.05
^{below middle}	£71p	£1.65	£1.19	40p	£2.12
^{Bottom shelf}	26p		72p	28p	£1.53	£1.99
^{Maximum saving}	£2.28	63p	58p	23p	£1.47	9p

This table clearly shows just how much more expensive the product in the middle of the shelf (right in most people’s eyeline) is. So give your neck some exercise and shop around on the shelf.

The supermarket maze

Believe it or not, all supermarkets follow a similar overall layout. Fresh produce; fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy are all stocked around the outer limits of the store whereas pre-packed, processed and frozen foods are placed in the centre of the store.

They do this on purpose. It means that to get to the stuff you need for your diet, you have to look at all the stuff you don’t. Then as you work your way through the aisles, you buy stuff you don’t need. You therefore spend more and they make more. Cunning isn’t it?

They also keep staples such as bread and milk towards the back of the store in an attempt to get you to walk past almost everything else to find them. Plus, if you’re looking for tea bags, it’s no coincidence that biscuits are just next to them. Supermarkets pair up like for like products knowing that you’re more likely to end up buying both.

You can beat them at their own game. Help your health and your wallet – stick to the perimeter. If you have to go into the middle, use the aisle signs to go straight to the product you need. Then you won’t be looking at unneccessary items.

‘Convenient’ bags and packets – loose is cheaper

When you’re whizzing round the supermarket thinking about ten other things at the same time, it’s easy to opt for pre-packed items.

But, buying items like fruit or vegetables loose, is invariably cheaper than buying them in bags or packets. This is because the supermarket has to pay someone to pack them. They also have to pay for the materials and the overheads for the factory where they pack them which all adds up to a bigger price tag.

Do it yourself for free. You’ll also help the environment by saving on packaging and producing less waste.

Weight comparison

Supermarkets have to give the price per weight or volume of each item. It’s written underneath the price in much smaller writing. This is great for shoppers as it means we can look at how much the item really costs per 100g or kg. This way we can easily see how much we are really paying for an item and it helps us compare.

However, to trip you up, supermarkets tend to show the price per unit in different amounts for similar products. For example they might mark own brand orange juice as 52p per litre and then they’ll mark Delmonte orange juice as 8p per 100ml. This is meant to confuse you and stop you being able to compare prices.

It’s easy to beat them if you know your metric measurements though. A litre is 1000ml so that means that a litre of Delmonte costs 10 times 8p – 80p. This is actually more than the own brand, but it seems like it’s less when you just look at it because of the smaller unit measurement.

Don’t let them fool you. Get measurement savvy and get the most for your money.

Our Shopping Trip

To put our tips into practice, we went on a shopping trip of our own to see how much we could save. Here’s the impressive (if we say so ourselves!) results:


^{Shopping List}	^{Most Expensive Option}	^{Cheapest Option}	^Saving
Peaches	£1.98 pack of 6*	£1.28 punnet of 6	70p
Royal Gala Apples	£1.15 for 5 (approx 650g) pre-packed	90p for 5 (approx 650g) loose	25p
Tomatoes	69p for 6 (approx 400g) pre-packed	67p for 6 (approx 400g) loose	2p
Red Onions	79p for 3 (approx 525g) pre-packed	52p for 3 (approx 525g) loose	27p
Granary Loaf	£1.09 from the instore bakery	95p off the shelf	14p
Cheddar Cheese	£4.42 for 500g – store luxury brand	£2.73 for 500g – store budget brand	£1.69
	Total – £10.12	Total – £7.05	Total – £3.07

*Advertised as ’50% extra free’!

You get the idea - we saved a massive 30% on our shopping bill, and that’s just one small shopping trip. So if you spend about £100 on your weekly shop, you could be saving as much as £30 a week! That’s a serious saving over a few months or even a year.

Top Shopping Tips

Here’s just a few extra tips to help you save as much as you possibly can:

Before you go shopping have a look on Mysupermarket. You can compare prices of any items at all the major supermarkets, so you’ll be well prepared when you reach the shops.
Try not to visit the supermarket when all you need is 2 pints of milk – you’ll just end up buying things you don’t need, as well as wasting time and petrol.
Try eating one or two vegetarian meals a week and you’ll be able to cut back on the meat you buy and save a small fortune.
Buy fruit and vegetables that are in season – not only is this better for the environment, it’ll help your wallet too! Produce shipped from overseas incurs more transport costs and is therefore always more expensive.
It’s not always cheaper to buy in bulk if you end up throwing loads of food away. However you can buy staples (like rice and pasta) in bulk since they work out cheaper, last for ages and you know you’ll always use them. Its worth checking out the bargain basement supermarkets such as Aldi, Lidl and Netto for these kind of products as well as for things like salt, sugar and flour.
Once you’ve been round the supermarket and got everything you think you need (want), go through the basket just before you get to the check-out. Do you really need that jar of cajun fish relish? Or was it just displayed enticingly? Take out items that you don’t really need before you get to finally pay for your goods.

Got more of your own savvy shopping tips? Share them with the other Moneymagpies on our forums.

How to Get Hotel Discounts

2012-06-29T06:59:00.004-07:00

Learn money-saving secrets, such as how to get a free hotel-room upgrade, from an anonymous concierge.

“Hotels don’t want you to know this, but many of them give free upgrades. I know a sneaky but effective way to get one—and I’ve done it myself many times. The night before you check in, call the concierge for restaurant recommendations and casually mention how excited you are for the trip and that it’s a special occasion. If it’s a specific noteworthy celebration—a birthday, an anniversary—by all means, mention that, too. You may score a nicer room and a comped bottle of wine as well. Once you’re at the hotel, come by the concierge desk after 6 p.m. to ask about other activities. Many guests will have gone to dinner, and we can devote more time to finding you deals. Most concierges have discount vouchers and coupons for museums and tourist attractions, but that’s not all: Often we can help you score secret friends-and-family discounts at local department stores, which can save you a ton if you plan to go on a shopping spree. We can also provide services you would pay more for elsewhere. Once a guest needed flowers for an event she was attending. I picked out a bunch at the market and arranged them for her myself. Not only were they beautiful but the guest walked away paying only a fraction of what she would have been charged by a florist.”

LITTLE SNEAKY TRICKS

Mum finds sneaky method of removing splinters using Nurofen tube

Clever Design Hack – Fake Browser Bookmark Bar by Time, Inc

By Jeremy O'Briant

How to Save Money on Amazon With a Fake Baby

Great workaround for sending delayed gmail messages

How to Schedule & Send Gmail Messages Later with Google Sheets

Schedule your Gmail – Step by Step

Video Tutorial – Schedule Gmail Messages

How to Change the Spreadsheet Timezone

How to Grab Your Competitor’s Audience Using YouTube Ads

Digital Marketer Lab Member Extra

Advertisers Find Sneaky New Way to Make You Watch Commercials

by Corey Eridon

What Makes This Weird

Emergency Hotline 911 receives a 'pizza order' from a lady who needs help

Getting browser history using Javascript

Getting browser history using Javascript

Why

What it does

XHTML

CSS

Javascript

Costco shoppers use gift cards to avoid membership fees

Was your email read? HOW to find out!

Stalkerish Way To Get Back Links (Sort Of Creepy But It May Work)

Google Tip...for EVERY phone!

Find deals on eBay using misspelled auctions tool

Find (Almost) Anybody’s Email Address

A sneaky way to get money off your groceries

So what?

The good news

Registering as a new customer

Keyword Research With Wikipedia? (Sneaky method inside)

Google Maps Head Indoors in the UK

TURN TEXT UPSIDE DOWN

Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People

Sneaky Ways Websites Get You to Spend More

.•:*¨¨*:•.WONDERFUL*¨¨*RECOMMEND*¨¨*BUYER .•:*¨¨*:•.

FOR SELLERS TO LEAVE FOR BUYERS:

FOR BUYERS TO LEAVE FOR SELLERS:

Get Twitter to tell new users who YOU think they should follow

Sneaky Little Email Trick to Get People to Click Through on Your Links

So, here’s a sneaky little email trick to make your subscribers want to take a look at your video and click through.

Sneaky supermarket tricks you need to know

Make your food go further

Look out for their tricks

Our Shopping Trip

Top Shopping Tips

How to Get Hotel Discounts

Learn money-saving secrets, such as how to get a free hotel-room upgrade, from an anonymous concierge.

.•:¨¨:•.WONDERFUL¨¨RECOMMEND¨¨BUYER .•:¨¨:•.

So, here’s a sneaky little email trick
to make your subscribers want to
take a look at your video and click through.