Zybron's Thoughts

RIP David Carradine

2009-06-04T13:03:00.001-04:00

EDIT: (June, 10, 2009) As it turns out, this appears to be a case of autoerotic asphyxiation gone bad – as it usually does. Still, my sentiment below on suicide still stands. In this case, however, it seems that instead of the idiocy of ending one’s life, we have the idiocy of repeatedly attempting suicide and, usually, failing for the purpose of erotic gratification.

It has been reported today that David Carradine was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. The linked CNN article does not mention this but other sources have described the scene to be a likely suicide.

I really don’t understand that. I mean, I realize that David Carradine is not a young man by any means – he was 72 at the time of his death – but I could never imagine any reason to take my own life. Perhaps he felt that he had done everything that he wanted to do in his life and, who knows, when I’m 72 maybe I will feel the same. However, I’ve such a passion for new and innovative things and ideas that I really can’t see a point when I won’t be looking forward to the next cool thing.

I am saddened by the loss of such an iconic individual and I hope that his family can find solace in all of his accomplishments rather than dwell on his unfortunate demise.

Technorati Tags: suicide,David Carrradine,Bangkok,Thailand,death

There And Back Again

2009-06-02T13:25:00.004-04:00

The vacation was really nice. I know I posted before that I was all set to post on the trip. Obviously, that didn't happen. But that's ok, I was too busy having a good time.

Our flight out was early on Saturday the 23rd. The plane left at 7:30 am and so we left the house at 6:00 am to get to the airport in time. We went through the standard security procedures of the modern airport sans shoes and all, fortunately, without incident.

I took a few photos out of the tiny view port on the plane with my iPhone, so if you are curious about the quality, consider the equipment and conditions. Unless my memory fails me, which is entirely possible, this shot to the left is an aerial view of Chattanooga.

Below you will see some nice fluffy clouds. As you may recall, this was my first flight, so this is the first view I have had of clouds from this side outside of recorded images. It was really rather beautiful.

Overall both the flights out and the flights back (yes, flights, each leg of the trip had 2 layovers) were very nice and quite uneventful. I did learn some things that I will definitely put to practice on any future trips that will require any air travel. I will book the flight directly with the airlines, rather than any third party. In this case, we booked through Priceline.com and though the flights were very nice, had we booked directly through the airline we could have chosen who we flew with and more importantly, where we were sitting during the flight.

For the first leg of the trip, we were flying US Airways and the flight was overbooked. We were given seats that were not even close to being together and we were actually treated with a standby status rather than the full (well, discounted, but still) price customers. It definitely had us worried, but we were able to make all of our flights without much more hassle than that one initial issue. It was Memorial Day weekend after all, so some strained travel was expected.

That was Saturday. Pretty much the entire day was given to flying. We made it into Sacramento around 4:00 or 5:00 pm Pacific time. We’re on Eastern, so that was like 7:00 or 8:00 pm for us. We grabbed our rental car (a neat little Toyota Matrix – apparently we didn’t take a photo of it) and checked into our hotel. We decided to visit a couple of Erin’s friends that evening before crashing.

On Sunday, we planned on heading out early to visit San Francisco. It’s about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Sacramento so the earlier we started the more time we could spend there. The previously mentioned friends were able to get a sitter for the day and travel with us. Unfortunately, they took quite some time to get ready in the morning, so we didn’t leave Sacramento until around 12:00. As it turns out, this was more than enough time for San Francisco, but I didn’t realize it at the time, so the delay was kind of irking me.

San Francisco was cold. I had seen the weather report and the temperature was going to be in the sixties. Great, I though, it will be cool but not cold. I was severely mistaken. San Francisco was really cold. It may have been in the sixties, but the 20mph winds off of the Pacific made it feel like 40’s or 30’s. It was almost miserable. This, of course, was why it was not an issue that we showed up much later than planned. If we had been there earlier, it would have been that much colder and since it was so cold, none of us wanted to stay very long. I was there long enough to see some sights, do some shopping, and go to a beach long enough to at least experience the Pacific Ocean. (Certainly not swim in it, but at least say I had been there. I’ve only the Indian and Arctic left…not that I think I will experience the Arctic – brrr.)

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and went on to a beach on the actual ocean, rather than on the bay. Oddly enough, I think the water was warmer than the air that day. I think if we had gone swimming it would have been fairly nice. We would have died of hypothermia about 20 seconds after leaving the water in that frigid wind.

We were there pretty late, so much so that it was around 1:00 or 2:00 am by the time we got back to the hotel. We were exhausted by then but had a busy morning the next day. I’ll continue with our adventure in California in a later post. Feel free to let me know what you think of mine and my wife’s ‘awesome’ photography.

Technorati Tags: vacation,Sacramento,San Francisco,Golden Gate Bridge,California

Vacation!

2009-05-21T13:48:00.002-04:00

Saturday the family leaves for a vacation to California. It will be the first time I have been to California and the first time I have ever flown. Yeah, I know, if you do the math, I'm 32 and haven't ever flown before in my life. It's not for lack of a desire to fly, but rather a lack of opportunity. In fact, I'm really excited about finally getting to take a flight.

We are traveling to visit my wife's family, mostly, but also plan to do some typical sightseeing, as well. After all, how could I travel across the country without at least doing some touristy things. We are going to Sacramento for the family (and probably some sightseeing there, too) but also San Francisco. Admittedly, I'm more excited about San Francisco than Sacramento.

I have everything set up, I believe, to be able to blog while on the trip. So, with any luck, I'll be able to post updates throughout the trip. I look forward to sharing some cool pictures and tales of my journey.

Technorati Tags: Vacation,California

Hello again

2009-05-20T09:40:00.003-04:00

Well, so it's been over a year since I have done anything with this blog and I'm sure if any of you were past regular readers (there aren't any left, right?) you are exceedingly surprised to see a new post. I am too.

When I was last maintaining this blog I was trying, rather unsuccessfully, I might add, to do a post every day. At first, this wasn't a very difficult task and for a few months, I believe, I maintained that kind of pace or very near it. Eventually, that kind of wore me out and I found that I was finding the task of updating the blog to be more of a chore than fun. Of course, shortly after that point, I stopped doing anything with it at all.

I don't think much has changed in this regard since then, except that I will not place any expectations upon myself. If I decide to write a post, great. Otherwise, don't expect too much.

So, expect to see some changes soon as I begin to clean up the blog and update some things...if I feel up to it, of course.

I've had some changes in my work-life that has been rather positive and as a result, I'm not nearly as busy every day as I have been in the past. So, I've been enjoying activities - mostly gaming - that I haven't been able to enjoy as much in the past. We have a wonderful vacation planned for next week and I may well post about that when I return - maybe post some cool pics of the west coast.

So, here's to hoping that I can return to the joy I once found in sharing a little bit about myself and the things going on in the world with others.

Technorati Tags: life,blog

Online Gambling For The Squeamish

2008-01-22T06:15:00.000-05:00

A good friend of mine spends a large portion of their free time at online casinos. I've never really understood this obsession myself. I totally understand going to a real casino and joining in with the crowd to gamble away some time (and money, most likely). The excitement of the crowd, the rush of winning, even the commiseration of loosing I understand. Personally, I don't see how the same experience can exist online...that is I couldn't understand it until my friend turned me on to a feature that exists in almost each online casino: free gambling.

Until my friend pointed out that a majority of the online casinos out there offer an option to play with fake money I never really got the point behind all the time he spent whittling away his money until I realized he wasn't really doing that at all. Instead he would practice a game until he reached a point where he was really confident that he could, on average, make money playing the game. Then, and only, then he would switch to real money and start playing the game. This time, though, it was for a profit. Sure, not every hand was a winner, but over time he was actually making money and doing quite well doing so, apparently. It's really not a bad system, honestly, practice, practice, practice, with fake money until you are winning most of the time and then switch to real money and play the same game.

So, I checked out one of the online casino sites he normally plays and I'll let you know if I ever get to the point of retiring off my winnings.

Technorati Tags: online casino

SEOdigger.com

2008-01-19T08:30:00.001-05:00

I recently came across this very neat site that allows you to find which keywords you rank for in search results. Here's an example of the results you will get:

If you click on any of the links you are taken to the search engine where the key word ranks. (Google for all of mine, apparently the other search engines don't like the blog at all or maybe it just hasn't been active long enough.) These results are updated every 2 weeks so it may not be entirely accurate. For instance, the #3 ranking shown for "what to do on sunday" is actually #8 but it is still accurate enough to estimate which page you are likely to be on.

There are some humorous search phrases in that list like "breed my wife". That phrase results from the post that my wife wrote for the blog mentioning that girl gamers aren't such a rare breed after all. Still, interesting to note, I think.

If you click the Goggle Keywords Tool link you are presented with a captcha to fill out and then the site imports Google Adwords information into your search listings. This information lets you see the relative search volumes for your keywords as Google Ranks them and the relative Adwords volume on that keyword phrase. So, if you were planning an Adwords campaign and really wanted to focus on some of the keywords that are already ranking decently for your site you could see which of those could be the cheapest to target. For my site some of the keywords aren't being bid on at all (though some of them are kind of strange).

You must register to get more than 5 searches an hour but registration is free and easy. I've had fun with this tool and in the future if I decide to target some specific keywords for this site or any site I happen to be making I'll definitely use this.

Technorati Tags: seodigger.com

LifeLock - Never Suffer Identity Theft Again

2007-12-23T10:40:00.001-05:00

I recently saw an interesting commercial for LifeLock and had to do some research on the service being offered. In the commercial this guy had his social security number posted in 3 foot letters along the side of a tractor-trailer that was driving through a large city. That's a pretty decent demonstration that LifeLock would protect your identity from being stolen.

I did some searching online and found this LifeLock Promo Code and a better explanation of exactly what LifeLock does. Credit alerts are placed on all of your credit reports within an hour of enrollment. Junk mail will be restricted and pre-approved credit offers are blocked. Your account is monitored 24/7. When you apply for credit the financial institution will contact you before making any approval. This way you are aware of every line of credit that is requested from your credit report.

Now personally, I have such bad credit that I'm certain if anyone actually stole my identity, they would return it with an apology letter. However, if I did have credit worth protecting, I'd probably head over to LifeLock and use it's service. $1,000,000 in protection versus identity theft is a really decent offer. Not to mention, a reduction in junk mail. The service may be worth it, just for that.

If you are worried about identity theft or just want to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive be sure to use this LifeLock Promotion Code for 30 days free and $21 off the annual enrollment price.

Technorati Tags: LifeLock

How To Really Make Your Post Stand Out - Awesome CSS Tool

2007-12-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

Wow, has it really been five days. I know that I have been a bit slack in posting as of late, but I had no idea it had been five days since my last post. So much has been going on with the holidays and everything that I didn't even realize the time had passed. I won't make any promises, especially with Christmas right around the corner, but I'll try to post more.

In the meantime, I'm sure you have noticed by now that something rather interesting is happening with the layout of this post. I found a really cool CSS tool that allows you to customize the exact layout of text. With it you may specify the exact shape the text should follow using two lines on either side of the text. With the lines you can designate points that allow you to manipulate the line angles. You can place as many points on the lines as you like to be able to create interesting angles and designs.

If that seems confusing to you, it would probably be easier to just check it out for yourself. The CSS tool generates code in a few different formats. There is simple div tags that specify the shape you have outlined that you place immediately before the text you wish to maniputlate. The second option only works if you use style sheets. Using this method you define the style in your style sheet and reference it just above the text on your page. The third option is done via javascript and is probably the easiest to implement.

Either method you choose it is just a matter of following the directions on the site to get a really cool text wrapping effect on your own site.

Technorati Tags: CSS Tool, Cool Sites, Idea Shower

Adsdaq - Name Your Price

2007-12-14T08:01:00.001-05:00

I've recently discovered an ad delivery network that I have been using here on Zybron's Thoughts. If you've noticed some very eye catching ads showing up where Adsense was before then you've seen the new ad network in action. Adsdaq.com is the ad network I've been using.

Adsdaq has a unique feature for the ads that are displayed on your sight. You get to specify the CPM for those ads. (Cost per thousand impressions.) Adsdaq will then try to match the CPM you have specified with ads from it's inventory of advertisers. If it can't match that CPM for a particular ad impression it will display a backup ad instead. You can specify what this ad is - using Adsense or some other ad network ad code. In my case, Adsense is the back up ads, so if you have only seen Adsense ads on the site and are wondering what in the world I am talking about, that's why.

Feel free to click through on either the picture or link above. To my knowledge, there is no affiliate program with Adsdaq...at least that I am aware of. I seem to recall there being a space for a referrer input text box when I signed up, but I have no idea what they were asking for there. It may have been account number. If that is the case and you feel like crediting me with the referral, my account number is 503339. I don't think I receive anything for the referral, though. At least, I'm not aware of any referral bonus.

I've been pretty happy with the performance of Adsdaq. It's been pretty nice to be able to specify my own CPM rate and have it matched at least half of the time ads are being displayed. I've only had the ads running for a few days now, so I don't have any long term performance info, yet. When I have a full month of ads running from them I'll do another post to give my full impression of the performance.

The only thing I don't like about Adsdaq are the ad sizes. They only offer the following ad sizes: 120x600, 160x600, 300x250, and 729x90. It's a bit limited in selection for but it is a decent option for most blogs. There is a sideboard sized ad, either slim or a bit larger in the 120x600 or 160x600, there is an in-post sized ad with the 300x250, and a header or footer ad in the leaderboard sized 728x90.

If you are tired of under performing ads or just want the freedom to specify your own CPM, give Adsdaq.com a try.

Technorati Tags: Adsdaq

What National Blog Posting Month Taught Me

2007-12-12T12:58:00.001-05:00

As many of you are aware, I signed up for National Blog Posting Month last month. For the most part, it wasn't much of an issue. There were a couple of days that I just had absolutely nothing to write about and if you look back through the archives you will definitely be able to pinpoint those days. If you are looking back through the archives now you'll notice that I didn't quite make it. I'd like to share what NaBloPoMo has taught me.

Before November began I was posting about 0.9 articles a day. Most days, I had a new post, sometimes there would be a day without a post. When I heard of National Blog Posting Month I thought it would be no big deal. A post a day...I already do that. So, I can easily sign up for this and get together with thousands of other bloggers doing the same thing.

I did quite well for most of the month, as my archives show, but I noticed something almost from the beginning. I was finding it difficult to write. At all. And it wasn't just trying to find topics to write about, which is sometimes difficult, but it was actually difficult at times to motivate myself to actually write. It seemed like the moment I agreed to actually post once each day the very thought of coming up with a post was difficult.

I'm not normally very prolific - I like to get to the point. It wasn't that I was trying to write more than I normally would. I was averaging a post per day, anyway. So, it seems that the real factor that was causing me to want to skip posting was just because I had to do it.

What had been an entertaining hobby that I thought might someday lead to a nice side income had instead developed into a second job. And it wasn't a difficult job, by any means, but it still somehow weighed upon me like the onus of working a second job would.

As a result, I will probably never be a professional blogger. If the deadlines in a simple agreement like National Blog Posting Month got to me like that then I may have issues producing regular content for a 'pro' blog. On the other hand, as long as I can simply perceive it as a hobby, I seem to do fine keeping just about any schedule.

For the time being, though, I have cut back on the posts I have been making. The last thing I want to do is burn out on something that I should find enjoyable. For now, I am having fun, so the posts will keep coming...just not as often. :)

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo

Voting Begins For Mystery Topic Challenge #5

2007-12-10T07:18:00.001-05:00

The Christmas Ninja presents The Mystery Challenge #5! The topic was proposed by Scott of Scott-O-Rama, the winner of MTC #4. Below you will find all the entries for this challenge. Please visit and read them all. Once you've read all the entries, please vote for your favorite. Members of the forum may vote in the poll HERE. Guests can place their vote in this thread HERE. Voting concludes on Dec. 16th.

Read - Robby Rational: Holiday Traditions
Read - Peter Namtvedt: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?
Read - Uninhabited Man: Mystery Topic Challenge #5: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?
Read - Jester: The Christmas Colonic
Read - Leaf Probably: Mystery Topic Challenge #5
Read - Jayne d'Arcy: Holiday Traditions - MTC #5
Read - Zybron: That Holiday Spirit
Read - BunGirl: MTC #5: Christmas Traditions
Read - Some Go Softly: Traditions Are Our History
Read - ShadyLady: MTC#5
Read - Mr President: The Christmas Ninja
Read - Seaguy8: Mystery Topic Challenge: Favourite Holiday Traditions
Read - Geekgrl64: Mystery Topic 5 - What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?

Technorati Tags: Mystery Topic Challenge

That Holiday Spirit

2007-12-09T09:21:00.001-05:00

What's that behind you? Are those sleigh bells you hear? Did you see something? I think it was wearing red...could it be the Christmas Ninja? Happy Holidays from the BlogNinjas. They are the crazy internet group behind the MTC. The members rock the blogosphere in varying degrees, and can sneak up behind you in a moments notice. You can join the clandestine group after undergoing a severe and heavily scrutinized Blog Ninja review that verifies your actual existence and BN worthiness (basically, we read your blog). Post an entry, vote, maybe win, and you may be selecting the next topic. It's like a blog party.

Click here to join.

The topic for Mystery Topic Challenge #5:
What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?

This has been a rather tough topic for me. Not so much as thinking about holiday traditions but on what exactly to write.

As a child my family didn't really celebrate Christmas. They are fairly religious people and felt that the reason for the holiday had been corrupted by the commercialism. So, besides maybe getting a present at school from a secret Santa type of exchange, I typically didn't really get anything for Christmas. And I didn't really notice much of any difference between myself and other kids.

That changed once my Mother married her first husband. His family celebrated Christmas and my mother didn't really think it very fair for his children to get all the Christmas goodies and do all the celebrations and such and us not being included. So, we had Christmas, but I was old enough to know better at that point and much of the mystery was never there.

Once I was on my own, I didn't really bother to celebrate Christmas. There was no one, except family that didn't really celebrate at this point, for me to buy gifts for anyway. I didn't bother decorating a tree or putting up any other sort of decorations as that didn't really seem all that important, anyway. Especially if you are a single guy and struggling to make rent and pay the bills. Spending money on Christmas decorations is usually about the last thing you are likely to budget into monthly expenses.

Everything changed again when I married my wife. She is a huge fan of Christmas and has always celebrated. She has lot of little traditions that she has wanted to get started. We've only experienced the one Christmas, though, so far. And although we were able to purchase a lot of decorations for the house and a cool tree and such, we couldn't really afford everything that she wanted to get for Christmas. Also, we live in an apartment complex that doesn't allow exterior decorations, so much of what she has wanted hasn't really been possible, either.

This year things have been so hectic for us that we haven't even had the chance to put up any of our Christmas decorations, yet. We'll hopefully fix that today, but she and I both work full-time jobs and so having time for just about anything other than working, fixing dinner and spending a few short hours with each other has been really difficult as of late.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't really have a favorite holiday tradition...yet. A few things have to fall in place for us as a family, just yet, before we can be settled enough to really work on the traditions. We need a house of our own that we can decorate as we please. We need a few more years to really establish what our traditions actually are, too. I'm really happy that we are building these traditions together, though, so it's just a matter of time before I could really answer this question to the fullest.

Technorati Tags: Mystery Topic Challenge

How Not To Hold A Blog Contest

2007-12-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

Please see this post from A Blog About Nothing for something I totally missed before and my apology in the comments. Much of what is below has been somewhat invalidated, however it is still good advice for holding a contest. Pick a random winner whenever you can and be very clear on how to enter the contest and how it will be judged.

A while back I entered a competition to describe what I would do if I had $50 to spend on my blog. I wrote this post for a competition on A Blog About Nothing and the winner was chosen recently. If you read through the comments from the post announcing the winner you will find some interesting responses. In particular, Beth from afrogtokiss.net summed things up rather well:

A bit offensive? Really offensive. We took the time to write a post giving you a backlinks and you 1. don’t thank us and 2. Insult those of us who entered.

There are a few things that one can learn on how not to hold a blog contest by using this contest as an example.

Here is the first lesson when running a blog contest: pick a random winner. If that is not the way you wish to hold the contest, then be very clear exactly how you will pick the winner...up front. Had I known that the intent was to come up with the most original way of spending $50 on my blog I certainly would have composed a different post for the contest. Instead:

Zybron - This was a pretty common entry/comment for this contest. Buy a domain name and move to a real self-host Word Press solution. Again not original

Well, next time that I am aware that I'm looking for something 'original' I'll be happy to post an original idea. Instead, you asked what I would do if I had $50 to spend on my blog. I was truthful. I would spend the money improving my blog like I described.

Second lesson - announce exactly what you are looking for in your contest. Since part of the criteria of judging in this contest was originality and it wasn't announced before-hand, many of the contestants were upset with the manner in which it was judged. I'm sure, had the originality factor been present from the first day of the contest, no one would have been upset for being critiqued on their choice of how to spend the money.

It's important to realize before hand that people can become quite upset over something like this and it could impact your blog negatively. Personally, I'm pretty happy that I was only tagged with being unoriginal. He was fairly scathing to some of the other participants.

Technorati Tags: blog contest

The Blog Ninjas Present Mystery Topic Challenge #5!

2007-11-29T21:37:00.001-05:00

Signups are open until Dec. 2nd when the Mystery Topic will be revealed by the last winner, Scott-O-Rama. You don't have to register to signup, but you're missing out on so much more. Besides, don't you want to be a Blog Ninja? For more information on what the Mystery Topic Challenge is click HERE. To signup, click HERE.

Technorati Tags: Mystery Topic Challenge, Blog Ninjas

Entrecard vs BlogRush - And The Winner Is...

2007-11-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

By a mile. I first heard about Entrecard earlier this month and kept meaning to check it out. It kept slipping my mind, though, and I didn't get around to looking at it again until a couple of days ago. I installed the Entrecard widget and began dropping my card at other's sites.

It was a simple process and the benefits have been tremendous. Entrecard is what BlogRush wished it could be without the need for an affiliate program. How good is Entrecard? I'm glad you asked.

Above are the stats from Entrecard for the first two days of being signed up. As you can see, there were 18 referrals from entrecard.com. 18 hits in two days sounds pretty good to me. So, how does that compare to all the traffic I received from BlogRush?

That's right, that is all of the traffic I had ever received from BlogRush. Notice, if you will, that two days at Entrecard garnered more traffic than two months with BlogRush. And not only that, but two days with Entrecard made for double the traffic for two months with BlogRush.

Entrecard is able to accomplish that by the simple expedient of their e-business card approach. You see, you can earn credits on Entrecard by "dropping" your e-card on someone else's site. When you do this, you earn one credit and your e-card shows up in that user's inbox on the site. You can use these credits that you earn to purchase advertising on another's site. Then, your e-card shows up on their site for one day. You may also earn credits when other users wish to advertise on your site. You are paid an amount of credits for each day of advertisement based on the number of dropped e-cards you get each day.

Overall, it's a fabulous system as it encourages the users to visit each other's sites to use the service. As more people sign up for Entrecard the more traffic your site should get from using the Entrecard widget. Exactly what BlogRush was attempting to accomplish but was incredibly unsuccessful in doing.

Technorati Tags: EntreCard, BlogRush

How I Would Spend $50.00 On My Blog

2007-11-26T21:07:00.001-05:00

A Blog about Nothing is offering an interesting competition. You are to describe what you would do with $50 to spend on your blog. For me, that decision is pretty simple: self-hosted Wordpress. I've always held that I would not spend any money on this blog that it didn't earn. Fifty dollars would go a long way towards getting this blog set up the way I would like to have it.

First, I would buy a domain name. I still haven't decided exactly what that would be since someone wants almost $30,000 for zybron.com, but I would pick out a decent .com of some sort. In that way, I could begin my slow transition to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. I could set this blogspot to associate with the new domain and give it some time for everyone to make the transition and for me to slowly but surely update all the links that I can that point to the current blogspot address.

Next, once most of my traffic is coming in from the new domain name instead of the blogspot address I would want to get a host and set up Wordpress there. I'd get everything moved over to the hosted site and point my new domain there.

My final blogspot post would be a simple message letting everyone know that we had moved to the new address and host. I believe $50 would be just about enough to accomplish all of this. If I happened to have anything left over after that, I would probably set up a very cheap ad campaign with Adwords or perhaps find some cheap advertising somewhere else.

What would you do with $50 to spend on your blog?

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog contest

rssHugger · Increase RSS Subscribers with rssHugger's Blog Promoting

2007-11-25T09:45:00.001-05:00

rssHugger is a new site that is offering a feed directory service for bloggers. Here's a bit from their site about the service:

rssHugger is a new website developed to help bloggers promote their blogs, and to help visitors discover new blogs that write about subjects that the readers are interested in. Through the power of the internet and viral marketing, rssHugger looks to bring blog writers and blog readers closer together. If you own a blog, you can get your own page on rssHugger for 10 years for giving an honest review of the site on your blog. If you want to join rssHugger but do not want to review our site, you can pay a one time review fee of $20. rssHugger will be the first ever quality, spam free, and viral rss directory strictly for bloggers.

Just a simple review like this one can earn you a listing with rssHugger for 10 years, which seems like quite a good deal to me. There are already 96 blogs being indexed by rssHugger as I write this and I'm sure with the free review system for admission to the service that number will increase exponentially.

Why not write your own review and get your listing?

Technorati Tags: rssHugger

Help Save Kelso

2007-11-23T08:11:00.001-05:00

Kelso is a wonderful greyhound rescued by PantherGirl. Kelso has a spinal injury that requires surgery. Already, before the surgery, PantherGirl has had to pay out $3200 in veterinary bills for Kelso. She is a single mother of two and with the holidays approaching I'm sure you realize how difficult such a bill can be.

Here is how you can help out. I know will you be shopping during this holiday season and likely some of that will be through Amazon.com. Simply use the link provided, either in the image here or on my sidebar, and do your normal shopping. PantherGirl will receive a portion of the proceeds of every purchase.

If you will be shopping via Amazon this holiday season, please use this link and help Kelso and PantherGirl pay off this large vet bill and raise money for the surgery.

Technorati Tags: Help Save Kelso

The Sims, Second Life, Facebook -- Meet Sociotown

2007-11-21T09:08:00.001-05:00

Sociotown is an indie virtual world with about a billion customization options. Here's an intriguing first-look video.

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BlogRush Gives You Traffic If You Already Have Traffic

2007-11-19T18:17:00.001-05:00

This is the conclusion I have come to concerning BlogRush. If you are already getting tons of hits, like JohnChow or Shoemoney, both of whom have recently posted topics about BlogRush, then the BlogRush widget works for you. John Chow is getting something around a .35% CTR with BlogRush. That's not great, but it's not horrible either. I think the main reason BlogRush works for big blogs that are already receiving traffic is name recognition.

Since the BlogRush widget shows the title of the post and the blog the post is from on the widget, those blogs that are already well-known, like JohnChow.com or Shoemoney, are much more likely to get a hit from the widget than John Q. Public's blog. I know that seems to be the case for me.

Some argue that it's the catchy headlines and maybe it is, but I don't think that my headlines have been any less catchy and interesting than some of the bigger blogs out there. Despite that fact, for the history of running the BlogRush widget on my site my posts were syndicated a total of 37843 times. Out of those, I've received 10 hits from the widget. That's a CTR of 0.026%. And that is also exactly why you'll notice that the widget is no longer on my blog.

That's the other thing about having a popular blog. John Chow and Shoemoney, both, I'm sure, could take the widget off their site and never use it again and still get the same kind of traffic they are getting now. John Chow reported he has over 10 million credits in the system. If he stopped earning credits entirely, that's still enough to syndicate his posts for years. Having a really popular blog has meant being able to advertise this system and get thousands of affiliates. All of their affiliates' traffic is what is really powering their own BlogRush traffic.

Those are my conclusions on this little experiment. Have any of you had any success with BlogRush?

Technorati Tags: BlogRush

What If You Earned Money From Digg?

2007-11-18T07:46:00.001-05:00

That is part of the idea behind Swypefile.com. This is another site, similar to BloggingZoom or Pluggy, with one major difference. The site is monetized by Google Adsense and you are encouraged to add your publisher id to your account. When you do so, ads with your publisher id are used for all of your submissions. What is more, is that your ads are shown 50% of the time for each member you refer to the site as well.

Here's some info from their site about the concept:

How to make more money with swypefile
How can swypefile help you make more money online? Let us count the ways ...

You'll profit from the latest online marketing news, tactics and strategies

Get more exposure for yourself, and the products or services you promote

Automatically monetize the content you submit with Google AdSense

Make money off of the content all your referrals submit to swypefile!

1. Discover the latest online marketing news, tactics and strategies
No serious online marketer has the time to keep up with dozens of different news sites, discussion forums, blogs and other content sources. But now you don't have to, because swypefile is the "web 2.0" solution ...
... a collaborative digital swipe file where you can discover, save, share, discuss and easily retrieve or search all of the latest online marketing news and content you're interested in.
Bookmark the swypefile homepage and visit daily. It makes a great browser start page. Browsing swypefile with a cup of coffee in the morning is a great way to start your day, and if you do this, you'll make more money online. Period.
2. Exposure for yourself, and the products or services you promote
Share your knowledge with others and submit quality content to swypefile, and you can generate exposure for yourself and the products or services you promote. Win friends and influence people as Dale Carnegie said.
As you become an active community member you'll find that interesting things start to happen - you'll make valuable contacts, you'll get more traffic and more subscribers, people will want to do business with you, stuff like that.
3. Automatically monetize the content you submit with Google AdSense
Aside from the obvious exposure and traffic potential of submitting content to swypefile, you'll also earn money directly from submitting content - swypefile automatically monetizes the content you submit with Google AdSense.
It doesn't even have to be your own content - if you spend some time each day scouring popular online marketing sites and submitting quality content you find, you can earn money from that just the same.
Just add your AdSense ID to your swypefile profile, and any time a swypefile page with content you've submitted is viewed your AdSense ID will be used at least 50% of the time.
... and that means when people click on the ads, YOU get paid directly by Google.

4. Make money off the content OTHER people submit to swypefile

Every online marketer can benefit from swypefile, so why not be the first to introduce it to them?
They'll thank you for it, and so will we ... by showing Google ads with YOUR AdSense publisher ID at least 50% of the time on all pages containing content submitted by ALL of your referrals!
And that can add up real fast. Imagine referring 500 people to swypefile who each submit new content at least a few times a week. Content that's viewed by 1000s and 1000s of people. Over time you can make some serious money.

As you can see, some of the focus of Swypefile is on website monetization and online marketing, but there are other more general categories to submit posts, like Blogging.

The site officially opens on Monday but already there are many stories up from those who got in on the action early. I'm definitely going to give it a try and see how things work out. I'll be sure to report back to all of you about how successful, or not, the site is.

Meanwhile, why not check it out for yourself?

Technorati Tags: Swypefile

Gameplay Footage For Upcoming Ghostbusters Game

2007-11-17T23:53:00.000-05:00

Late next year, Vivendi/Sierra will be releasing a Ghostbusters game for the Nintendo DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. The game is being developed by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis so we know that the feel of the game will hold true to the original movies. I'd still much rather have another movie in the works to report to you today, but since that isn't the case, I'll settle for what looks to be a fairly nice game.

Attack of the Show on G4TV managed to get a bit of actual gameplay footage which you can see being aired during a segment of the Loop.

Technorati Tags: Ghostbusters

NaBloPoMo...

2007-11-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

...Is causing me issues. I don't have anything to write about today, but I need to post something because of it. So here's the post.

Girl Gamers, Not Such A Rare Breed After All!

2007-11-15T18:55:00.001-05:00

My wife has recently started a new blog to kind of vent about her daily life. I suggested she do a guest post on my blog to kind of get the ball rolling and she agreed. If you enjoy her writing style be sure to check out Too Busy To Notice.

"I have heard a lot of talk recently about girl gamers. The comment was posted about girl gamers being a rare breed and the conversation blossomed from there. Are female gamers a rare breed? It all depends on who you ask!

"I being a girl have to admit that certain types of gaming hold quite a bit of interest for me. I've been gaming for a number of years and have played in a variety of table top and live action game settings. My first gaming experience was with a live action Vampire game that I got into in 1996. I had never been exposed to gaming prior to this. Sure I played Monopoly and Scrabble with my parents growing up, but that's not quite the same thing. Board games are a whole different entity. I played in live action game settings for a number of years. The games that I was involved in were so large though it was more like a theater group than a game setting. It was a blast nonetheless.

"Soon after my experience with live action gaming, I was introduced into table top gaming. I started with tabletop vampire and branched out to include D&D. I have to admit when I was 21 D&D made no sense to me because it was a lot of math and attention to details. I wasn't used to that sort of gaming. Life happened continued and I gamed here or there when I got the opportunity. Now that I am married to a very enthusiastic gamer and computer nerd, my horizons have been broadened even more. We've played in a variety of game settings including both live action and tabletop. I have to admit that I am quite partial to tabletop at this point because I don't have to worry about getting dressed up to portray my character. It's a more personal gaming group set in a friendly environment at a house rather than a public area. Not to mention it's a bit more cost efficient to be a tabletop gamer at times, unless you happen to be a collector of every book for that system that comes out!

"I have found now the wonderful world of MMORPG. I have discovered games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest. I have to admit I prefer World of Warcraft. I never thought that I would play the game that has cause so much controversy in the past. People becoming addicted and doing crazy stuff like neglecting their kids and forgetting to eat and ending up in the hospital. It does have a bit of an addictive nature though. Simply because you strive to get that little animated character as high in level as you can so you can reach the next reward tier. (Got to get to level 40, I'll get my mount!) It ensures that players will keep playing and buying the expansions so they have more options available to them. Fantastic marketing in my opinion. So why do people think that women aren't as big into gaming as men? It's typically the woman's job to take care of the kids, hold down a job, clean the house, cook the meals, do the laundry, etc etc. Men make the living and do the yard work for the most part. (Not all men, but in general). When would a woman find time to dedicate hours to grinding through a game to level a character, or go to someone's house for an all night D&D session. Well let me tell you, where there's a will, there's a way.

"I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands and my life is about to get more hectic when I go to work full time. Yet I still find at least an hour or two a night or every other night to sit down with my husband and log into World of Warcraft so we can at least get one quest completed. It's a great way to relax and be able to play a character in a fantasy world that is nothing at all like yourself. It allows you to use your imagination to create this character and choose it's path in "life". D&D is very much the same. Imagination is needed to create that character concept, while dice rolls determine that character's stats. How many people get to say that they get to "play" every weekend? Most adults spend their time being so responsible that they tend to forget the things in life that make them smile. Simple things that don't require a college degree or a corner office. Guys are quicker to admit this than women are most of the time. Women need downtime too, it's not like being female is enough for us. So between whites and darks and thawing out tomorrow night's dinner and the son or daughter's bath time, sit down put your feet up and enter a fantasy world that doesn't require you to be superwoman! It's ok to be a gamer, I am and I have to admit that I think I am closer to my husband and a better person for it. Don't look at it as something silly, think of it as a learning experience from all those hours we spent playing dolls and house when we were younger.

"Women gamers are out there you just have to know where to look. We enjoy a good time as much as the next guy, we just tend to have less time to dedicate to playing. That just means when we do play we get down to business and get the job done, it's our nature! So next time you are putting together a tabletop game or getting some folks together in your favorite MMORPG think of this, cute girls game too, so why not add to the beauty of the game and invite one over? Who knows where it may lead? (If you are married, invite the wife, it could bring the two of you closer together). A couple that plays together stays together because if you can't laugh together is there really a relationship? Have fun and get creative, I know I will!"

Technorati Tags: Too Busy To Notice

Mystery Topic Challenge #4 - Voting Begins

2007-11-14T07:20:00.001-05:00

This challenge promises to be quite an interesting one, not only for the rather interesting topic, but also because there are 18 participants. It seems like each time the challenge rolls around there are about 5 more bloggers participating. Here are links to all of the participants in the fourth Mystery Topic Challenge:

Blog Ninjas present The Mystery Challenge #4! The topic was proposed by Mr. President of Textual Relations, the winner of MTC #3. Below you will find all the entries for this challenge. Please visit and read them all. Once you've read all the entries, please vote for your favorite. Members of the forum may vote in the poll HERE. Guests can place their vote in this thread HERE. Voting concludes on Nov. 22nd.

Leaf - Read More
Scott - Read More
BunGirl - Read More
Grumpamoose - Read More

from Reason to Freedom (4 entries)
Peter Namtvedt - Read More
Bob Bachus - Read More
Michelle L. - Read More
MJ Taylor - Read More

Jayne - Read More
Zybron - Read More
lonelygurl - Read More
TooBIG - Read More
An Honest Woman - Read More
Stepford Mom - Read More
ShadyLady - Read More
Some Go Softly - Read More
Debaloo - Read More
Jan - Read More

Technorati Tags: Mystery Topic Challenge