WTF?

Seamless way to make money with your website - especially forums

2012-01-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

In my recent blog post Making money with your website - without gimmicks I mentioned VigLink as a viable source of generating revenue on your website.

Now that I have had it for a couple of months, and have already seen a payment, this is certainly an excellent source of income to pair with your Google Adsense or another main revenue generator.

Forums will benefit the most with VigLink since forum users often post links to products and services. VigLink dynamically turns those regular links into affiliate links, links you can actually make money off of.

Though you would make more money per action if you singed up to the specific affiliate program yourself, where VigLink succeeds is that you don't have to sign up to any affiliate or have to maintain/monitor links. Everything is dynamic which = easy. Easy money :)

Making money with your website - without gimmicks

2011-11-18T10:47:00.001-08:00

There are a billion websites about making money on the internet, and I think almost all are gimmicky. The formula will always be to build real traffic, and to do that you need a good website that provides good content or resources that will attract and keep people coming to your website. Making your website easy to use is just as important.

There is no easy way to do that, using the spammy "get more traffic" gimmicks won't do that for you. It will take actual work.

Picking a niche subject to base your website about can help, but it is hard to start a website from scratch. If you are lucky and pick a niche that doesn't already have a popular website, things might be a bit easier for you. You still have to provide good content and resources.

If your website already has top tier competition, try to find things those websites lack and focus your work towards that.

For instance, steelsoldiers.com is the defacto when it comes to former military vehicles. Huge following, lots of traffic and lots of repeat visitors. Though this site rules the fmv land, there is quite a lot of lacking qualities.

The biggest is the almost non existent updates from the admins. There are broken things on that site that have been broken for years. Another turnoff, silly rules and "cliques" that hammer newbies.

Post a question and you will be bombarded by annoyed long time members, telling you search for it and do your own work. That would be fine in dandy if the search was actually good and all the "old" posts links to the site itself weren't dead. The holier-than-thou attitude is a big turnoff.

I created FMVowners.com and am basing the strong points of the site to the weak points of steelsoldiers.com. It will be regularly updated, problems will be fixed promptly, new resources will be added when called for, etc.

I also own RamchargerCentral.Com and pride myself on how that site is run, no silly rules, no bashing, no giving new people a hard time. That is how all of my websites will be run.

There will be no silly rules, all in all it will be an easy to use no hassle website. I have also added a technical manual download area (steelsoldiers was broken for years) as well as a NSN part number database, where users can look up parts and get the NSN and part numbers.

Now comes the hard part, get traffic. It has started to pick up, and hopefully it will keep up. Right now there is no advertising, no way to make money off of the site, so this may have been a bad example for this article :)

Now on to making money. Google Adsense is the best way I have found. Get it and use it. Affiliate programs are good to, but it is a pain to register with the thousands of affiliate programs and stay up to date with them. I have found a better solution, VigLink.

VigLink is a Google invested company that finds links to companies they are affiliated with and dynamically changes those links to affiliated links.

This works great with forums, if a user posts a link to Amazon.com, it gets changed to an affiliate link so when someone clicks that link and buys something in the next 30 days (or whatever the time frame is for their affiliate program is) you get credit for it and receive a percentage.

These are both great and easy ways to make money from your website. I would love to hear of ways or success stories you may have about your own website. I am always open for ideas :)

Other Advertising Powerhouses should be keying on Google's current "no payment" issue

2011-11-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Currently scores of Google Adsense publisher's are going nuts because they have not received their September payment, which was to be paid in October. Google pays the publisher if the revenue they generate is over $100.00. They claim you will be paid within 30 days of the end of the month your revenue tops $100.00.

Google is changing their Adsense interface, which was causing some issues about displaying how much your finalized earnings are, this was the case back in September as well.

However, the non-payment is a new one, something that hasn't happened since the Adsense program has existed. The worse part...Google hasn't acknowledged the problem.

The Help forum is being flooded with people asking what is happening and nobody from Google is answering.

This may seem to be a little paranoid to a non Adsense user, though keep in mind this has never happened, and payments are usually already deposited into your bank account well before the end-of-the-month.

A simple response or even blog post from a Google employee stating they are aware of the issue and it is being taken care of, or maybe give some sort of time frame, people would calm down.

While people are hectic, other advertising powerhouses, like Yahoo, should be stepping in. There is a small window here, at least I am assuming a small one, where Google is keeping it's Adsense publishers in the dark. No better time to take advantage than now :)

“Google + a Facebook Killer?” Question Answered

2011-07-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

“Google + a Facebook Killer?” Question Answered

Is your time spent in the social network worth anything? Apparently in the currency of "eaves" it is

2011-07-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is a little different from all the facebook games like Farmville, this is actually your social media usage converted to the stock market.

It is called Empire Avenue where you basically turn yourself into stocks. The game of Wall Street played and grown by your activity in social media.

But it isn't just a game, it is actually social media in itself. It gives you the opportunity to meet and interact with cool and sometimes famous people. A game you play to grow your social outreach, what a clever idea :)

Now go on, go look and play, and buy my stock since I told you about it :)

HTC EVO 4G have battery issues? Root it, problem solved

2011-04-13T06:26:00.001-07:00

I love my EVO, but hated how fast the battery drained. I had the app killers and battery monitors but nothing helped. On the stock battery I could manage almost eight hours of use between charges.

So I ended up buying one of the extended batteries, which require a new case back since the battery is larger. I was pulling about 14 hours at first, but it crawled down to a measly 5 hours eventually.

I decided it was time to root my phone and take advantage of the custom kernels that help save your battery with voltage scaling. Basically that means it turns down power useage when it isn't needed.

With the help of a guide on Good and Evo I rooted my phone, got a custom ROM and kernel and now I am on 18 hours of uptime with 60% of the battery still there. This is with the same battery I was getting 5 hours from before.

There were some problems with the root that the guide didn't cover. I initially read through the comments and saw one of the problems had to do with apps, so I removed a ton of them, but that didn't help. The issue was one of the files not getting deleted between the boot ups and hanging. Then making it fail if you tried the process again.

The name of the file slips my mind, but you get an error that the process died unexpectedly. Just find that app (the name is in the error) and just remove that app, and run the root application again.

UPDATE: With average phone and internet use I am netting 29 hours of uptime with 14% battery remaining. This is with 4g off, leaving 4g on all the time drains the battery fast, I haven't tested the life on that yet though.

Slimbox hiding animation/flash and not unhiding it

2010-12-30T07:17:00.000-08:00

I am actually using Clientcide libraries lightbox (mootools vers 1.2), which is slimbox made into a class, but should all be the same.

Slimbox is suppose to auto hide flash and animation, but show it once you close the lightbox. Unfortunately it didn't work, and flash was hidden forever unless you refreshed the page.

Here is how I fixed the issue.

Search for

var vis = (open ? 'hidden' : el.retrieve('lbBackupStyle') || 'visible');

and just remove el.retrieve('lbBackupStyle') ||

var vis = (open ? 'hidden' : 'visible');

Here is how the Dallas Cowboys still make the playoffs in 2010

2010-11-15T11:27:00.001-08:00

Lets say that Dallas runs the table for the remainder of the season. That will put them at 9-7 with two critical wins over the Eagles and one over the Redskins. As of right now Dallas is last in the NFC East, here is a low down on how it stands:

Giants 6-3
Eagles 5-3
Redskins 4-4
Dallas 2-7

So if Dalls wins out, that is 2 more losses for the Eagles and 1 for the Redskins. For Dallas to trump the Eagles in the division, the Eagles only need to lose 2 games other then the losses to Dallas. Out of the 6 games (not including Dallas), 2 losses would tie them with Dallas but they lose the tie breaker since Dallas is 2-0 against them. This is the easiest scenerio out of the other teams since Dallas can win the head to head matchup. Here is the remaining schedule for the Eagles:

@Redskins
Giants
@Bears
Texans
@Dallas
@Giants
Vikings
Dallas

For the Skins to fall behind Dallas it would need to lose 3 games out of the 7 non Dallas games remaining. I am just playing it safe here and saying they need to finish the season at 8-8 or worse. There may be a way for them to finish 9-7 and still lose out to the Cowboys due to division/conference records, but 8-8 ensures they can't win the division. Here is the rest of their schedule:

Eagles
@Titans
Vikings
@Giants
Bucs
@Dallas
@Jags
Giants

Giants may be a bit more of a stretch. They either need to lost 5 of their remaining 7 games or lose all 4 against the division rivals. Losing against the Skins and Eagles would put them at 9-7 but Dallas would win due to conference record. Here is their schedule:

@Eagles
Jags
Redskins
@Vikings
Eagles
@Packers
@Redskins

Now of coarse this is all moot and gets even more complicated if Dallas loses 1 game, but this season has been a weird one for the NFL and who knows, maybe they still have a chance at 8-8 :)

Apple wants to convert everyone to "right-hand"

2010-06-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

The latest and greatest iPhone is proving to be quite a pain, for left handed people that is. There are reports from engadget that some phones drop all calls when held in the left hand.

There are also reports of yellow "spots" stuck on the screen. Perhaps their fantastic retina display is a bit jaundice?

Iphone hoopla and why I chose the Evo

2010-06-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Apple doesn't impress me. I don't dislike Apple, their stuff just doesn't impress me. I view their computers as overpriced "wow" items. I think the "I'm a Mac" commercial is stupid, mainly because a PC doesn't mean Windows, it could be Linux which is the very base of their OS, but that is a different rant (I don't like Microsoft either).

I do like the iPhone, it pushed the cell phone technology to a new level and forced other makers to get with the program. What I don't like about the iPhone is how closed it is, and most importantly, it is on the crappy AT&T network.

I chose the Evo 4G for many reasons, the open Android OS (I am a web developer and programmer), the big screen, the 8mp camera, the processor speed, the fact it has a removable battery, changeable cards and a ton of other reasons I won't bore you with.

Is the Evo better then the iPhone, even the new one about to reach their eagerly awaiting owners hands? Maybe, maybe not. I like having control and that is what the Evo allows that the iPhone doesn't, so unless the iPhone is better then the Evo 10folds, it won't matter to me.

iPhone supporters like to throw the App count into the argument. That does not matter to me. Any app I want is on the Android Market. Even if it wasn't, it would be soon (or I could try to build it myself). Apple's tight hold on what apps are allowed is another turnoff. Maybe I want an app that has Droid in the name, or something built with an Adobe converter, or I want to look at naked chicks. NOTE TO WIFE: I don't want to baby, was just making a point ;)

In my opinion the iPhone is for newbies, the inexperienced, or even the materialistic. Some people will buy it just because it is Apple's latest and greatest - like the iPad (lame). The system restricts what you can do, so much to the point it is hard to mess anything up. That is why newbies and non techy people have such great experiences with it. Kinda like a tech toy for dummies - no offense to iPhone owners, there wasn't an easy way to say it :)

The Android OS on the other hand, is the complete opposite. I view this as more desirable to the tech crowd, hackers (that doesn't mean computer hackers), modders and those that just like to tweak the stuff they own. That doesn't mean a newbie will have issues with it, they can have a great experience, but if there ever comes a time they want to do some tweaking they can.

I would suggest an iPhone to my Mom or Dad if they were wanting to get a "cool" phone. Easy to use out of the box. For myself, I will stick with an Android phone :)

Tiger Woods potty mouth upsets you? What a wuss.

2010-04-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

I just read an article, Eye-Opener: Did Tiger's language offend you?, about some overly sensitive loser caster, I mean sports caster, being offended by Tiger Wood's potty mouth. I mean come on Jim Nantz, look at all the crisis in the world and you want to soap box on Tiger Woods saying "Damn It"? That isn't even a top level bad word, hell it is even in the Bible.

Tiger Woods bones 14 or so hot chicks while cheating on his wife, which doesn't offend you, but a little potty mouth does? Jealousy perhaps?

This may be a news flash, but Tiger Woods is just a man, he is human. Let him be one in peace crybabies.

Reggie Bush a bust? Don't think so Michael Rosenberg

2010-01-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Michael Rosenberg wrote an article for SI, Bust? Saints haven't figured out what to do with Reggie Bush, which I pretty much disagree with.

Bush was drafted to help the Saints by making big plays, scoring touchdowns and help the team win games. He wasn't drafted as the savior Christ like the article insists.

In Bush's career he has played in 52 games racking in 4,502 total yards and 32 touchdowns (not counting playoffs). That averages out to about 1251 total yards and 9 scores a year. Those are some pretty good numbers. He was drafted as an exceptional utility player and that is what he is. A running back, receiver and punt returner.

His play making ability also helps the team since defenses have to keep an eye on him. They can't load up on the receivers and stick a linebacker on him or they will get toasted. This opens up their passing game big time.

So a bust he is not. A good NFL player who helps his team win he is.

Dallas to win the Super Bowl next year?

2010-01-27T07:29:00.001-08:00

I just finished reading this article by Alan Pattani about how similar the 09 Cowboys are to the 91 Cowboys, which was the turning point to their Super Bowl domination in the 90's. All I can say is WOW. If you want to take a look at the story check it out HERE.

The current Cowboys certainly have a great team, if they can fix some mental blunders they can be an excellent team. I think this certainly can be Déjà vu for Cowboy Nation. I hope so, that way I can rag on all the Cowboys haters :-P

Wouldn't it be funny if the Jets beat the Colts?

2010-01-21T20:48:00.001-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I am a Peyton Manning fan. I think he is the best quarterback in the NFL and probably of all time. I would love for the Colts to win the Super Bowl.

Would it not be a total kick in the ass if the Jets happen to win? I mean, the reason they are even in the playoffs is because Jim Caldwell wanted to rest his starters in their week 16 match-up since they already had home field wrapped up in the playoffs. They bypassed the golden chance at an undefeated season for health players.

Now, the Jets could have won that game even if the starters stayed in, but it isn't likely. This upcoming game would not even exist had the Colts played the game hard and came out with a victory.

Now they both play for the AFC Championship, and that stickler defense of the Jets could possibly beat the Colts. Passing up the opportunity for NFL immortality and choosing rested players for the playoffs gave the Jets a playoff birth (well they still had to win their last game but you know what I mean).

If the Colts lose, Jim Caldwell will get blamed for not playing his starters in week 16 and killing the Jets playoff hopes at that time. With a win, the Jets will have bitten the hand that fed it.

But if the Colts win and go on to win the Super Bowl, fans may still be angry since it proves they would of beaten them in week 16, giving them a chance to have only the 2nd undefeated season in NFL history, the 1st to do it with the 16 game regular season schedule.

This game is gonna be good :-)

Tainted BCS Championship win?

2010-01-08T07:06:00.000-08:00

I don't think so. Many are claiming it a tainted win since McCoy went down so early in the 1st quarter leaving Texas to play a freshman inexperienced quarterback. Although that is a great misfortune for the Longhorns, that is just part of the game. Alabama did catch a break, a huge one, and even though the scoreboard said 37-21 it was a much closer game then that.

The first two field goals Texas kicked would have probably been touchdowns had McCoy not gone down. None the less, with just over 3 minutes left of the game Texas brought it within 3 points. Poor Texas freshman Gilbert's fumble and interception on their next 2 possessions changed that lead to 17.

Four interceptions, 1 returned for a touchdown, and a critical fumble were evidence Gilbert wasn't ready to play. It appeared the coaches already knew that when he first came into the game by being super conservative on play calls, basically just running the ball. It is possible that McCoy could of had the same issues with turnovers but it is highly unlikely. In my opinion Texas might have won the game by two or three scores had McCoy not gone down.

So a tainted win? Not for Alabama. I put the blame on Texas. Their backup looked like a lost kid out there. He did have some good moments, but for the most part the offense was severely hampered in limited play calls, and the turnovers are what lost the game.

Texas should have had a backup ready to play, especially in such a critical position. He should of been familiar with the offense, familiar with the playbook, and most of all familiar with the players. I don't expect a backup to come in and perform stellar, but I do expect a backup to come in prepared. Gilbert was nowhere near prepared and I blame the coaches for that.

Injuries are part of the game and shouldn't take anything away from a win.

Mike Leach fired?

2009-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

I would like to start off by saying I am not a Texas Tech fan, much less a fan of college football. I only know about this story because it has been popping up on my Igoogle page quite a bit and I caught something on ESPN about him locking a kid up in a small dark closet.

So I started watching and reading and this is what I get from it - the kid, Adam James, is a spoiled rich kid who is lazy and a blamer. Of course I don't know him personally, but what I have read that other people are saying about him, including his other coaches, past coaches and people that have played football with him, he is a lazy athlete and everything is always someone else's fault.

From what I have read he is even lucky he is playing Division I football in the first place. No other team offered him anything during or after his senior year in high school. His celebrity dad approached Leach with a highlight reel and against his fellow coach’s opinions; he gave the crybaby a scholarship.

Even being so lucky, he still whined about his playing time and was lazy in practices. Players even mention how "negative" he was and that he would bring other players down, often telling other players they don't have to listen to the coaches or do what they say because they have to play them any way.

Oh and that small shed he claims he was put in, it is the white building in the picture. Being put in a dark cooler area is actually to speed up recovery if he really did have a concussion.

Why is this crybaby doing this? Apparently because the coaches made him and some other receivers run bleachers for slacking off in practice a week earlier. The trainer in charge of their "punishment" says the crybaby was rude the entire time while the others accepted it and did it.

Texas Tech has fired the coach, without any proof he did anything wrong. This is before their bowl game. What an easy way to not have to pay the coach his $800,000 bonus that is due at the end of the season. I think this is going cost Texas Tech a lot more then that considering Leach has a pretty good lawsuit under development.

All of this is happening because of a spoiled rich kid not getting his way.

Well the Boys did what I expected

2009-12-19T21:52:00.001-08:00

I knew the Cowboys would win this game, and it wasn't only wishful thinking. The Saints near loses proved they weren't immortal and I figured if they were going to lose any game this almost perfect season it was going to be against the Cowboys.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Cowboys are better then what people think. And with their life basically on the line, it was just a matter of making one or two plays they have been missing in their loses to be able to topple the perfect season of the Saints.

I knew the Saints would not blow them out, I expected a low scoring close game or a blowout by the Cowboys. Although it was neither of those expectations, Dallas clearly out played the Saints.

And Romo played extremely well again, December has been good to his stats this year. The defense stepped up, and for once the play calling went deep. They finally let Romo throw the deep ball and it worked in more ways then just the touchdown. It made the defense realize they could get burned, and basically softened the D up overall.

I am gonna say Brees dropped out of that MVP hunt leaving it to Peyton and Favre. I like Drew Brees and I like the Saints alot. I was actually hoping they would win because I would like to see 2 teams go 16-0, but I knew Dallas was gonna break that up.

I know the Cowboy bashing will continue, now people are gonna hate them because they ruined the Saints hope to perfection. Oh well, maybe they can ruin some more dreams along the way in the playoffs :-)

tweirdos roam twitter - the spazzy side of twitter

2009-12-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

A quick catch up - when I started twitter I thought the amount of people that follow you was the benchmark on how successful your account was. So I built a script that I could type in a keyword and it would auto follow anyone who mentioned that word in a tweet. There was about a 10% - 20% return on who followed you back. I thought I found a great way to get followers.

Fast forward 10 months or so - I now see that followers do not really mean much since most are just spam accounts anyways. My friends timeline was pretty much unreadable. So I wrote another script to unfollow everyone and start over fresh. I realized that people would unfollow me too, but I was fine with that. I wanted quality followers who actually read my content.

So I unfollow everyone, follow a few back I remember and tweeted that I unfollowed everyone and to @ reply me and I will follow you back. I figure this would be a great way to weed out the bots and spam accounts and I knew the people I already know would reply back.

As expected I lost close to 1500 followers the first full day. What I didn’t expect was to get a disgruntled tweet swung in my direction because of it.

@iamdamnsam U DONT FOLLOW ME SCREW YOUR BLOG - from EastDallasAlice (reminded me of Debbie does Dallas for some reason). That took me by surprise.

I replied to that with - @EastDallasAlice Guess you missed my tweet about me unfollowing everyone and to @ reply me if you want me to follow you :-P

I didn’t think people were like that on twitter, so far I haven’t seen one testy tweet. At first I thought it was kinda funny, thinking how anal she must be so I decided to look at her tweets.

@AmberAusten cAUGHT YA, i DONT FOLLOW YOU ANYMORE EITHER
@anz_rocks19 OK i DUMPED U 2 AND i BET U DONT LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THE BODY U USE
@clancymanuel cAUGHT U AND COMPOSER, MUSCIAN, FILMAKER MY ASS
@philhawley sO WHAT DID i DO 2 YOU 2 MAKE YOU QUIT FOLLOWING ME. oH DONT BOTHER i DUMPPED YOU 2.
@OK i QUIT FOLLOWING YOU 2 A HOLE
@thierryleyva OPPS iM NOT FOLLOWING YOU ANYMORE.
@AmberAusten What are you Refering 2. Did I catch you not following m e anymore? Sorry, I don't show mercy 2 peeps who drop me
@texasbeaut yea and u dumped me so goodbye texas beauty who cant show her face, ho ho

Wow, that is just from one day. She had way too may RTs of other people's Follow Friday tweets (tons) I didn’t dare scroll through her spam to get to any other day. Seeing all of those spaz out tweets showed me a psycho side of twitter.

I followed up with a retweet - RT @EastDallasAlice: @iamdamnsam U DONT FOLLOW ME SCREW YOUR BLOG - that will get you followers 0.o

Her reply to that (apparently she ignored my first one about @ reply me back)- @iamdamnsam Well whatever u can zip your pants up or whatever, Im gone

Zip my pants up? What the hell is that? I just had to reply to that - @EastDallasAlice LOL! Way to be a biaaaaatch, that will get you followers :-P I looked at your tweets, you got anger issues, see a shrink

Hey, I know, arguing on the internet is dumb, but it was fun and judging by the intelligence of her posts it was going to be a one sided battle :) I didn't really want to argue as much as rib her.

Her wittiness followed up with - RT @iamdamnsam: @EastDallasAlice LOL! Way to be a biaaaaatch, that will get you followers :-P You are a stupid idoit u are blocked dumbass

And then - RT @iamdamnsam: Oh and bbbtw i am a shrink, you poor pathetic idiot

LOL! A shrink huh. Right. Then you should already know about your psycho-ness :) Just curious, but has anyone else encountered people having a cow on twitter because you unfollowed them? I would love to hear the story :)

What does everyone have against the Cowboys?

2009-12-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is, maybe it is Jerry Jones? Maybe it is the deep pockets the team and its owner has? Who knows, but I get tired of hearing about how horrible they are, they are fake, Romo sucks, blah blah blah blah blah. The media bashing is ridiculous as well.

The Cowboys are 8-5. They have lost to the Giants twice, Broncos, Packers, and the Chargers. Not one of those teams is under .500. They have not been blown out this year and were in every game until the end. The average score they lose by is a measly 5.8 points. In my opinion every loss minus Green Bay was just down to 1 play, made FG or call. That is how close they are to being 12-1.

Now I don't think they are the best team, they could be a great team, but they aren't. I do think they are better then what the bashers think they are.

Take the Cardinals for instance. They have been highly praised and their recent loss to the 49ers is just being blown over. No big deal to the analysts, columnists and sports writers. The Cardinals are still a powerhouse in their eyes.

The Cardinals are 8-5 just like the Cowboys. They have lost to 49ers twice, Colts, Panthers and Titans. The only team over .500 that has beaten them is the Colts. They have lost 4 times to sub .500 teams. The average score they lose by is 11.2 points.

Yet the Cardinals still are not criticized like the Cowboys are. The Cardinals are ranked higher in every power ranking list these writers come up with.

Dallas is ranked 3rd in the NFL in total offensive yards. Cardinals are 14th. Dallas is 14th on defense yards allowed, Arizona 25th.

Arizona was just blown out by the 49ers (6-7); Dallas barely lost to the Chargers (10-3) and really should have won that game by 10. The Chargers are labeled as one of the hottest teams in the NFL yet they barely scraped by the "horrible" Cowboys.

Even the Defending Champion Steelers get less criticism then the 'Boys, and they have a losing record and are guaranteed not to make the Super Bowl.

I feel the biggest problem with the Cowboys is the coaching. Wade Phillips should not be the Head Coach, he is a great Defensive Coordinator, but he doesn't have what it takes to be a Head Coach. All the errors and penalties are fixed with coaching, and the Cowboys have a lot of those. He provides no motivation to the players. Look at Bill Cowher; he would chew someone's butt if they screwed up. All Wade does is roll his eyes or make a face.

I use to think Jason Garrett was a great Offensive Coordinator, but I don't think that anymore. He made bad play calls in situations where the right call could have helped win the game against the Broncos and Chargers. I have noticed throughout the season the play calling has been horrible.

I do not think Romo is a problem. He is a good quarterback, look at his stats this year and over his career. He is good and could be great with a good coach. Once he has enough passes to be able to get in the record books he will own some and be in the top 3 or 5 in a lot of categories. Not bad for this being only his 4th year. He is the main reason they have been in every game this year till the end.

I am hoping Wade gets canned after this year and they bring in a good head coach. Then they will have a chance to win the Superbowl. Who knows, if they get better play calling and clean up the mental errors they could contend this year.

WTF are newspapers thinking?

2009-12-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

Requiring registration to see content that is available on thousands of sites that do not require registration is just plain stupid. Even worse are those that allow you to view a few articles before blasting the "You have to register" page.

For some reason, newspapers seem to think we owe them for giving us content that can be found elsewhere hassle free. We don't owe them anything, they owe us. Without us they are going to die.

I worked for a paper in Victoria, TX from 2000 - 2005 as a webmaster (I prefer web developer but whatever). I saw first hand how those stuck in their old ways and not willing to change with technology disliked the paper's website for "stealing their customers", blaming us for their dropping subscriptions.

What they didn't understand, and what most papers still don't get, is it isn't only the content you are providing, it is also the delivery. Make it hard for people to get your content and they will get it elsewhere.

They did start "getting it" around the time I was leaving, at least those in charge of what the web department was allowed to do. They moved from a navigation nightmare with talks of possible forced user registration to a more simplified (maybe it is just easier to look at) approach. They aren't forcing you to register, at least not at the time of this posting.

I personally think they went a little overboard trying to push the site into a social hub for Victoria. I mean it is a newspaper company, people go there for news, more importantly local news. Social networks is what facebook is for.

They have fixed one major issue, after I left they started to use yahoo! for their classifieds. What once was a nice collection of local ads turned into an overwhelming list of national ads with local ads hidden in the mix. They eventually axed that terrible idea and went back to local only. Good job.

Enough about my old job, the reason for this rant is about forced registration. The Dallas paper more specifically. I like to go there because of their stories on the Cowboys. I should be more specific, I don't just go to their website, I see their stories from a gadget on my Igoogle page. I have it setup with alot of sports sites so I can see the latest headlines from all of them.

So I see a headline that interests me, I click it and read it. In the stories sidebar they list related stories which I visit to read more on the subject (Cowboys), but after going to 3 stories they want you to register.

Blah. I immediately close that tab (I browse in tabs) when I get that registration page instead of the article I was seeking. I do this with any site that doesn't allow the content to show and wants you to register.

So today in the side bar I see at least 9 stories I would read, but I only get to read 3 (the one I initially go to plus 2 from the sidebar). That may only sound like I missed 7 pages, or rather they dropped 7 page views to show potential advertisers on their traffic stats, but it goes a bit deeper then that, it deters me from going to their site in the first place.

I will never type their URL in the browser because viewing their homepage will eat up 1 view. I will also not go to their article if the headline is similar to the many others I see. I actually now only go to that site if it is something I don't see on espn.com, si.com, foxsports.com or the many other "news" sites that allow free reign on their articles.

I am willing to bet many others do exactly what I do. So that means their loss of traffic becomes huge, and traffic is what will keep them up. I read all the time how these big papers are blaming Google for their loss in revenue. If anything Google is helping them, giving people an easy way to get to their content, but that is another rant for another day :)

The classic response will be "just sign up, it only takes 30 seconds, don't be lazy". Well I don't owe that to the paper, the paper owes me easy access for helping keep them alive.