Cranial Soup

Creepy Service Wants Everyone That Can See Your License Plate to Be Able to Send You Unsolicited Text Messages

2011-02-21T09:31:00.001-05:00

Bump.com hopes that this video entices you to sign up for their service, tying your cell phone number to your vehicle's license plate. Please don't be stupid enough to fall for it.

First of all, if you see a baby left alone in a car, you should call the police...not send a text message to the parent guilty of child neglect that is putting that baby's life in danger.

And sending a text to the jerk in front of you to give him a piece of your mind for his bad driving is a really BAD idea. It just encourages road rage, which can have deadly consequences.

Reporting a break-in in progress to the owner of a vehicle instead of snapping a photo of the criminal & calling the police, can result in the possible injury or death of the owner of that vehicle if they should come running out and confront the criminal. You do not know if they are armed and dangerous.

And marketing? That's not marketing...that's spamming. It won't take long before you decide to change your phone number and/or plates, if this crap becomes popular. You'll have to, to get any kind of peace. It won't take very long for someone to start collecting license plate numbers and selling them to the highest bidder. The potential for abuse here is seriously high...worse than email because a license plate number is a whole lot easier to get than an email address.

If you want everyone in the world to be able to send you any kind of message they please, whenever they want, including some of the most vulgar filth imaginable, then just put your cell phone number on a bumper sticker and/or wear it on a T-shirt...or perhaps write it on the wall of a public bathroom. (no, I don't think you'd really want to do that, but using BUMP is just about the same thing.)

Finally, as Gail Gardner from Growmap pointed out, this service conditions people to spy on their neighbors and complete strangers, eroding both our privacy and freedom.

How can you rank well on search engines, without fussing with SEO?

2010-07-02T16:07:00.002-04:00

If you want to rank well on search engines without fussing with SEO, then pretend it's 1995 and there are no search engines that will list you, because you can't afford the high fees for inclusion.

Now, how are you going to, in an ethical way, make people want to visit your site, stay awhile and explore, come back often, and share what they find with others?

Your site should work well and not be broken.

Make sure all links to pages on and off your site actually lead to where you want them to.
Make sure you don't have broken images.
Make sure the content loads correctly in all the major browsers.
Make sure your pages adhere to W3C standards and they validate.

Your site should be designed for people.

Make sure your template is pleasing to the eye and not painful to look at.
Make sure it has good navigation and is easy to discover and find the content your site has to offer. Good use of sidebar links to important stuff. Links to similar content pages on your site.
Make everything within 2-3 clicks of the main page.
Break up huge amounts of text with related images to help the eyes stay focused where they should be,
Your site should load fast. Use real thumbnails for your images and not just merely resizing with HTML.
Don't overwhelm people with ads.
Remove spam promptly.

Your site should invite people back.

Give your visitors multiple ways to be notified and access new content (RSS feeds, email subscription, follow on Twitter, a Facebook fan page.) Make sure new content reaches them wherever it's convenient to them.

Your site should encourage sharing.

Make sure you don't use frames. Every page should have its own unique URL that shows in the address bar.
Use Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Google Reader/Buzz buttons.

Your content should be unique and of high quality.

Don't copy other people's stuff, write your own.
Check your spelling and grammar.
Put thought into what you write.
If you post YouTube videos, add some unique commentary that doesn't exist anywhere else on the web.
For every sentence you quote from another source, write 3-5 of your own. So if you quote 3 sentences, you will have to write 9-15 to balance it. Don't quote in every article. Don't quote any more than what is necessary, less is much better than more.
If you are supplying information, make sure it is complete, accurate, and up to date.
Write about stuff people will care about enough to want read it. Don't write about what you had for lunch unless your a restaurant critic.
If your site is a blog, link out in every article to quality related content. Linking out to pages on other good blogs has the bonus in that it may earn you a trackback link on that page, or at the very least attract the eyes of the author of that blog who will stop by and check out who is linking to him.

Interact with your visitors and make them feel important.

Allow commenting and respond to comments as soon as humanly possible.
Give your visitors a means of contacting you privately, either by supplying an email address or a contact form.

Spread the word.

Become a highly respected member of a large community with similar content.. Put your link in your profile and signature. If people respect you, they will click the links.
Reach out to blogs by reading and participating in discussions. Never leave a "nice post" comment. Put some thought & work into your responses. You want to catch the attention of other readers and the bloggers themselves, and make them ask "Wow! Who is this guy?" so they will click your name and visit the site it links to. Always make your comments increase the value of that bloggers page.
Participate on social media sites and interact with people in a positive way. Get conversations going. Again, you want to make people ask "Who is that guy?" which will lead to them checking out who you are (your profile) and where you came from (your site).
Find an ad network that gives away free advertising. (I happen to really like Project Wonderful, personally)

If you do all of the above, quality inbound links will happen on their own and between the fact that others think high enough about you and your site to write about it and link to it, combined with having a great site, structurally, that makes it easy for spiders to find your content, you will get the ranking in the search engines that you deserve.

Above all, be patient, work hard, and don't engage in any "evil tricks". Good ranking does not happen overnight.

It started with a piece of string...

2009-12-09T10:35:00.001-05:00

Then evolved into a short elastic strap with a set of snaps at both ends. This was my solution to a problem.

What problem was that?

When my daughter was just a baby, back in the mid 80's, she kept throwing her pacifier out of the stroller and then would holler like hell, and I couldn't give it back to her to shut her up because it was now dirty. So I tied a string on it and attached it to the stroller. It didn't stop her from throwing it, but it did keep it from hitting the ground and getting dirty or lost.

But the string didn't work well for bottles, and untying knots was a real hassle, and something that couldn't stretch restricted her from being able to drink her bottle while lying down in the stroller. A string only worked well while she was sitting up.

Elastic and snaps...it was perfect. Other mothers saw what I had done and wanted one for their kids' bottles, too. I made a bunch and kept them in my purse, individually sealed in little zip-lock bags. They cost me less than $1.00 to make, and I sold them for $2.00 each.

Then a good friend of mine suggested I get a patent for it and find a company to mass produce them and make mad amounts of money on royalties.

He put me in touch with a company that supposedly specialized in helping inventors get their products patented and bringing them to market.

Word of advice: Don't deal with these companies. They will do nothing to help you. It will cost you a lot of money and you will get nowhere.

After paying $400 for a rather poorly written "market study report", they managed to talk me into paying another $5000 and entering into a 5 year contract with them, promising to contact manufacturers and pitching my idea to them, and if a company was interested, they would get them to pay the cost of patenting it in my name, and I would get a royalty on every single copy of my invention that they manufactured, regardless of whether they actually sold any.

They convinced me that it was far cheaper to let them handle it, since they had offices all over the world and could set up meetings with company executives. They said my cost in air travel alone would exceed the $5000 if I tried to do it myself, nevermind hotels, paying for expensive lunches, drinks, etc. They also said they were experienced and knew what to say, so I would have a better chance of getting a deal. And they had their own contract lawyers, specializing in royalty agreements, to protect my interests.

I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. I took out a personal loan to cover the cost, from a financing company that turned out to be owned by them. It took me 2 years of high monthly payments to pay it off.

And what did they actually do for me? Did they contact all the big name baby product companies like Gerber or Fisher Price? No, they contacted publishers, like the one that produces Parents magazine.

They mailed out form letters to the editors of magazines targeted at the consumer that would be most interested in my product. They never contacted a single manufacturer. Those "inventors help" companies do this all the time, for any and every product idea that comes through their doors, no matter how good or bad the product idea is. The magazine editors are used to it and know it's all crap and toss every letter in the trash without ever opening them.

And they tied my hands for 5 years, preventing me from doing all the work myself, otherwise I'd still have to give them a large cut of my royalties if I succeeded in finding a company willing to manufacture it, on my own.

So I decided to wait till the contract expired. There was no way I was going to let these swindlers have another dime.

Before my 5 year wait was up, a conversation with someone made me realize that my great little invention had no hope and would cause the death of many innocent babies that had idiots for parents. The more popular my invention was, the greater the potential for it to kill, because stupid people that don't watch their kids properly and don't follow instructions, would end up using it in cribs and playpens and leaving their children unattended for hours, or using it in car seats while they were driving and unable to pay attention, resulting in strangulation deaths.

It was perfectly safe for use by parents that actually watched their kids and only used it in a stroller where they could watch what was going on.

If my invention had made it to market, I would have no control over it and no way to stop stupid people from buying it and killing their children with neglect. My product would be blamed and not the neglectful parents, and if it became a popular product the CPSC recall could have been huge, costing whatever company that produced it enormous amounts of money in recall costs and defending lawsuits, and ultimately, cost me a fortune, too.

And I would have these deaths hanging on my conscience for the rest of my life. I would never get a peaceful night's sleep ever again.

So that is why you can't buy my invention and why I never became filthy rich.

Photo credit: außerirdische sind gesund

OpenCandy: A New Kind of Adware/Spyware

2009-05-13T00:34:00.014-04:00

They claim to be doing something noble, but the only thing sweet about OpenCandy is the sales pitch to naive developers that might just fall for it, tricking them into thinking it is somehow different than the typical common adware/spyware.

A lot of developers do seem to be biting the bait, but no matter how you slice it, it's still adware/spyware, and to me it stinks worse than the old fashioned kind.

In OpenCandy's own words, this is what they do:

Recommendations are made to users during the installation process. Utilizing the install process creates a user-friendly experience and offers optimal engagement for making a software recommendation. The user is presented with a screen that describes the recommendation, at which time they may choose to install the recommended software.

That makes it adware!

We then provide analytics back to the creators, so they can see how their software and recommendations are performing. This way they can better understand how to build and recommend great applications.

That makes it spyware!

We've also provided our technology as a platform to a handful of software creators who are utilizing an offer screen during the install process as an advertising unit. Some creators are already monetizing their distribution by offering apps like browser toolbars, so we're helping them improve their user experience and optimize the effectiveness of their offers.

That makes it your typical spyware/adware we have always known.

Actually, this is much worse, because instead of big companies like Sun & Opera making some software and offering it for free and advertising Yahoo's toolbar in the installer, we have a lazy predator company backed by venture capitalists that doesn't want to bother with or take the risk in developing a ton of software of their own to push toolbars to make their millions. They want to use the software of naive developers to accomplish it.

An ad is an ad, and to me there is no difference.

There is no difference between showing an ad for some other product by some other developer in the installer of my software, no matter how much I might even like that software myself, and popping up an ad for CocaCola or Viagra on a user's screen during the install process.

Do you remember what you parents told you about not taking candy from strangers and why? Well, these guys are not really strangers, they are known preditors. The founders of OpenCandy are the same guys responsible for the inclusion of the spyware/adware in DivX.

Now, before you call me a hypocrite for bashing adware installers while having ads on my blog, let me explain the difference:

Any visitor to my blog can turn off Javascript and not be exposed to ads. Or they can use a noscript plugin, or an ad blocker. They have that choice before they land on my site.

I even offer an ad-free RSS feed.

If I want to recommend software to my users, I put it on a separate page of my site and not in my software or installers.

When the ads are in an installer, the user can't install the software without seeing the ads. They have no real choice. That's the difference. And I seriously doubt that developers are going to offer two different installers and give users the option to see or not see ads or be exposed to spyware.

So now that I have told you what I think, what is your opinion on OpenCandy, as either a software user or developer (or both)?

UPDATE Saturday, February 19, 2011:
The following applications have been found to install OpenCandy:

aMSN
Any Video Converter (last freeware, OpenCandy free version 1.21 available here)
ApexDC++
ATI Tray Tools
aTube Catcher
CDBurnerXP Pro
CrystalDiskInfo
DarkWave Studio
Dexclock
DoubleTwist
Driver Sweeper
Duplicate Cleaner
DVDVideoSoft products
eRightSoft products,including Super
ExtractNow
FL Studio
Free YouTube Downloader
Frostwire
IE7Pro
Image Tuner
IZArc
kantaris
Media Info
MediaCoder
MediaInfo
mIRC
Miro
Office 2010 Trial Extender
Orbit Downloader
PrimoPDF
PSP Video
RedKawa
SIW
Soldat
Startup Manager
StepMania
Super Simple Photo Resizer
TechTracker
Trillian Astra
True Burner
Unlocker
Veoh Web Player
Videora
Vistaglazz
WebShot
Winamp
WinSCP
Xfire

This is not an exhaustive all inclusive list. This is just what I have found with a quick Google search. If you know of any other applications that should be added to this list, leave a comment and let me know.

The easy and fun way to market your message to millions of people

2009-04-27T00:36:00.006-04:00

Too many so-called “experts” are saying that if you have some message that you want to tell the world, that you need to have tons of followers on Twitter. They write blog posts and tutorials explaining how to do it, and sell tools and services to help you rapidly get as many followers as you can.

But they are wrong...dead wrong. You don't need any followers on twitter, none at all. You don't even need a twitter account.

You can reach more people in more places, including Twitter and Facebook, by just getting the right people on Friendfeed to follow you.

But who are the right people?

Anyone with a large following on both Friendfeed and Twitter that is highly active and will be likely to respond to your messages, blog posts, and whatever other content you post by clicking that "like" link, who also has his Friendfeed account set up to post his activities, including "likes" to his Facebook and Twitter accounts. And if your content gets reshared or retweeted, the potential reach can be explosive!

And it takes only a handful of power users to potentially spread your message to millions.

But the really tricky part is getting them to follow you and clicking that golden "like" link, which you can only do if what you post is of good quality and relevant to their interests, and you are actively social, commenting and clicking that "like" link on theirs and other people's content.

This isn't something you can fake your way through. You are either the real deal or it just will not work. Luckily you will have a blast and make a ton of new friends while you are doing it, because Friendfeed is a whole lot of fun and loaded with tons of great discussions around great content.

Social media "experts", internet marketers, get rich quick on the internet scammers, and spammers need not bother even trying. This kind of powerful marketing was not made for you.

What do you love?

2009-02-16T12:24:00.002-05:00

We, as consumers, have a vested interest in the products and services we use and the stores in which we shop. How much of an interest depends on how we feel about it. The more we love a product, store, or service, the more of a vested interest we have in its long term success.

It is not beneficial to us, as consumers, to fall in love with a dud. (Not all duds are bad products, some are just poorly marketed) If you are the only one to love a product and buy it, or the only customer a particular store has, then there is no possible way for that product or store to survive, long term. You, as the lone consumer, do not have enough buying power to guarantee the success of what you love.

So what happens to the duds? Well, they disappear, of course, leaving you to feel the pain & sorrow of losing something you love. While it might not compare to losing a pet or loved one, it's still painful to lose something you love, no matter what it is.

It's an endless list of things that we have loved and lost, as consumers. I am sure we all can think of at least one product or service that we once enjoyed very much, that we would just about kill to have it once again. A shampoo or conditioner that made your hair look great, that perfect shade of lipstick that stayed on all day without smudging, that nail polish that didn't chip for two weeks, a favorite candy or snack, a brand of shoes that always fit as if they were made just for you, a flavor of yogurt, a dry cleaner that never ruined your clothes and always got every stain out, the Chinese restaurant that had the world's greatest lo mein.

But alas, it's not very likely we will ever have these things again.

Now take a look at the products and services that you currently love. Do enough people love these things to guarantee its success in the marketplace, long term? Are they going to be here tomorrow? Are you going to have to go through the pain of losing another favorite, yet again? Is there anything that you, as a consumer, can do about it?

Yes, there actually is.

There are two things you can do to help.

1. Sharing is caring...tell people about it.

The more people you tell, the more will be introduced to the product or service that may have never heard about it or tried it before. And there are lots of ways and plenty of opportunities to do this.

2. Tell the company responsible for the product or service exactly how you feel about it.

Take the time to write a letter and mail it, the old fashioned way, on paper in an envelope with a stamp on it (perhaps you can even send a thank you card). Popular celebrities shouldn't be the only ones to get fan mail. While sending an email is quick and easy, sending real mail goes the extra mile to show how much you really care.

Now this won't guarantee that a product or service won't disappear at some point, but you will be doing your part to protect your interests in its long term success.

Is there a product or service that you use and love enough to tell me about it, today? Now is your chance to start doing something to protect your vested interest in it, by telling me (and everyone else that will read this page) all about it.

Leave a comment. Consider it an investment in your own consumer happiness.

There is one catch, though...

Please do not advertise your own products, services, or websites. This is for your fans to do today, not you. Instead, tell me about someone else's product or service that you love.

The 10 Commandments for Marketing Your site on Digg

2008-11-24T21:17:00.009-05:00

Never submit pages from your own sites. Never Digg anything from your own sites. This is the most important rule of all, so this is why it is first. If you follow nothing else on this list, at least follow this single most important rule.
Create a proper profile with an image and links to your websites and profiles on other social networks. Your profile is an important part of your site activities. It allows people to get to know who you are and more about you. The default image provided by Digg doesn't make a good impression on anyone. A properly filled out profile invites social interaction. Digg is a social site. It's important to be social. Most of the traffic I get directly from Digg is people visiting my sites through links on my profile.
Avoid using the Digg shout system as much as possible. Even if you keep your shouts private, people and search engines can still see and find them. These shouts can hurt you. It can be viewed by some people and search engines as a form of spamming.
Make friends with your Digg mutual friends on other social sites that have a private message system in which private messages are never made public and accessible to search engines. Or even better, use instant messaging and email, instead.
Get your Digg friends to submit your content for you, and don’t use the same person too frequently…rotate them. (use the private message system on other sites to suggest what to submit and Digg) And not every page on your site is a worthy candidate for submission. Be selective and only give them links to the best content you have on your site. Be very critical of your own work. You know what will appeal to the masses and what won't. Don't act like you are stupid. Don't submit things that will likely only get a few Diggs. This will hurt your site, in the long run when your content is submitted to Digg and gets a low number of Diggs. Google rates your content in part, by the number of Diggs it receives. Choose wisely.
Get real friends that are also members of Digg to submit and/or Digg your stuff. (same thing…contact them offsite) Make sure those friends are not connected to your Digg profile in any way.
Digg a big variety of content submitted by others (not just your friends), from the upcoming section, and don’t Digg anything lame. Think massive quantities of mass appeal. Ask yourself the following: "What would the majority of people assume about me if they were to see this in my Digg history?" If it's not something good, don't Digg it, even if you really like it.
Make sure you comment and say something intelligent that won’t get voted down, on at least 50% of what you Digg. Commenting and interacting with others is being social. You need to be social on a social network, or it just won't work. You want to be one of the first few to comment as frequently as possible, and you don't want to seem like you are some sort of idiot. And vote up the intelligent comments that you like, made by others. The more you are an early commenter with something intelligent to say, and the more social you are, the more likely it will be that you will catch the eye of a more powerful Digger that likes you for what you have to say and what you Digg, and he will be more likely to check out the other things you Digg, and then possibly Digg things that you Digg. More powerful Diggers have crowd appeal that you don’t. Their followers are what you are after and you get to those through them.
Do not attempt to friend the top dogs on Digg until you have established a very strong profile and have an abundance of experience. They are not going to friend you back if they don't know who you are and have never seen you around the site. An even better idea is to wait for them to friend you, first.
Never friend anyone on Digg that breaks the above rules. Remember the old saying "Birds of a feather flock together". Don't mark yourself as "guilty through association". Anyone that breaks the above rules are poor quality Diggers and their activities can get you marked as a spammer or poor quality Digger, yourself, and then either your account will get banned, you submissions will get constantly buried, or people just won’t Digg your stuff. If that happens, then you will be useless to your mutual Digg friends, and they will not be willing to help you as much. They may even stop following you. Leave the poor quality Diggers that break the above rules as just followers and not mutual friends. Don’t follow them or you will be following them to failure. Associate yourself only with quality.

And what kinds of things should you submit and Digg besides the usual stuff that has mass appeal, and content of good quality from your friends? Submit and Digg high quality pages that link to yours. Your goal should be indirect traffic coming from those sites to yours and not from Digg to yours. This is one easy way you can reward people that are kind enough to write about you. You give those pages more traffic and a boost in page rank and have more links pointing to you in the top 10 results in the search engines.

The goal is not to get a day of traffic from Digg. The goal is not to increase your own page rank for your site (this will happen any way if you follow my suggestions). The goal is not for your site to make the front page of Digg.

The goal is to take over the entire front page of the search engines so all links will point to you, directly or indirectly when someone searches for something.

Most people never go to page 2 of the results. They usually find what they want on page 1. If every article on page 1 sends them to you, you WIN BIG TIME, even if your site is buried on page 8 of the search results, which it won’t be if you are paying attention and learning from what I just said.

The higher the page rank of the sites that link to you, the higher your page rank will be. Why have a bunch of PR0 sites linking to you when you can actively do something about it and help turn them into PR3 or higher? This is one case where nice guys don't have to finish last. Being nice can help you finish first.

Barbie Wants to Code

2008-08-20T10:06:00.004-04:00

I thought the idea of branding was taken a bit too far when I saw this, but I think we can take it to an absurd distance and territories completely unknown, by proposing a fun little exercise for your 1337 Photochop skills.

Now that Hello Kitty has her own antivirus (how can you take a product like that seriously?), Barbie is jealous and wants her own programming IDE...and she wants YOU to design it for her.

Your assignment (if you choose to accept it):

Take a screenshot of your favorite IDE.
Drag it into the photo editing software of your choice.
Dress it up Barbie style...all pink, flowery, and quite girly.
Make it look like something Barbie would be proud to code in.
Show it off by posting a link to your creation(s) in a comment.

Here is one I quickly did to give you an idea of what I mean and get your creative juices flowing. I am sure you can do much better than this, with a little thought and effort.

Delphi 6 for Barbie:

How can I make an ad or logo image for my blog if I have no talent?

2008-07-26T06:01:00.008-04:00

You have set up a blog and have been posting to it for a bit.

You have decided to monetize your blog with some ads, like Project Wonderful.

After earning money for awhile, you begin to realize that you could earn even more if you had more traffic. You could have more traffic if you advertised.

After all...

He who has a thing to sell
and goes and whispers in a well,
is not apt to get the dollars
as he who climbs the hill and hollers.

So you have decided to place your own ads on other sites and now need a 125 square image.

The problem is, you are just not that skilled, have no art talent, and you don't want to have to buy or learn something expensive and complicated like Photoshop, just to make a little square ad.

So what can you do? How can you have an attractive ad that doesn't look like a five year old created it in Microsoft Paint?

Well, you could head over to Free 125 Cards and make one with their generator.

No talent or expensive software needed and it only takes a few minutes.

Just select a background from their collection, type in the text you want, choose the font, pick the text size, drag to position it, and click the save button when you are done.

It's that easy. And did I mention that it's free?

Don't just sit there...go make that ad image and get some more traffic!

U Comment = I Comment - Exchange Your 2 Cents Here

2008-07-07T23:55:00.013-04:00

UPDATE 03-11-2009: I am no longer exchanging comments with everyone that posts one on my blog.

I have tried this and it has failed, mainly because of people taking advantage of my good nature by

leaving comments linking back to splogs and pure crap
leaving half a dozen dumb comments and expecting just as many good ones in return
placing rules upon my return comments with rediculous minimum length requirements
the plethora of just plain stupid comments left just to boost their own page rank and get both a nofollow link and a comment back from me

I don't have the time to play games any more. While I will still return comments with good blogs on occasion, and I still will post about great sites I find this way, please don't depend on it.

There are a number of people that read my blog and will contact me in private or elsewhere to share their thoughts, rather than leaving comments here.

They raise interesting points and we get into great discussions.

This is why I have very few comments on my blog and so many long IRC & private message chatlogs, instead.

Then there are others that read and wander off...with me never knowing what their thoughts are, never knowing who they are, where they came from, or if they have a blog of their own.

So, inspired by an article on John Chow's blog discussing evil ways to get more comments, and since I don't feel like talking to myself or being "evil", I have decided that anyone that comments on one of my posts (not this one) will receive a comment from me, somewhere on their blog. (not so evil)

The quality will be reciprocated. Leave a great comment and I'll leave a great one too. Leave a crappy "interesting post" comment and you will get a crappy comment from me, that you probably won't want showing on your blog.

I love free stuff. And I love giving away free stuff. And what is the one thing that I have in abundance that is free? My words. I always have a thought to share, and I share them freely when and where I can.

As any blogger that has had the honor of having me comment on their blog knows, I leave great comments that add value to a page. Sometimes I put more work into my comments than I do on my own blog posts.

I also write about and link to sites that I like, and leaving a comment on my blog is a great way to introduce your site to me and possibly end up with an honest, enthusiastic review on my blog, if I like it. But please don't spam, make the comment relevant to the post or you could find it deleted and yourself disqualified.

So, if you want one of my comments, leave one for me on a post other than this one.

Oh, and if you want to display my graphic on your blog and link to this post (or your own message) and do the same kind of comment exchanging, I won't mind. And if you make a better graphic than mine, let me know...I might want to use yours instead.

Rank Spanked

2008-05-19T10:03:00.004-04:00

I have had a few of those freebie .tk domain names for quite awhile pointing to a few sites of mine, that back when I started those sites, the hosting of them was quite unstable.

I acquired them so that visitors would always be able to find my sites, even if the hosting and real url changed frequently. Those sites were originally hosted on free servers or in the case of one of them, a single page on my ISP's server. I couldn't afford anything better at the time and those sites weren't created to make money, so they weren't going to pay for themselves.

Much to my surprise, the single page site hosted on my ISP's server became quite popular, quite quickly, making it to the front page of digg. This was followed by people linking to it all over the place, using the .tk domain name in their links.

I have been investing a lot of time & work into that site lately, transforming it from a single page into something much better.

Last year I discovered that the freebie .tk domain name for that site had a Google PR of 4. In light of that, I actually considered purchasing that domain name so that it would behave like a real one rather than just loading my site in a frame. Search engines would actually be able to spider the content of the site and associate it with that domain name. Visitors would be able to direct link to the pages properly and they would no longer see the .tk ad frame at the top. It would become a real domain name.

But recently I have seen the page rank drop to 1 and it no longer holds the top spot for certain search terms that it once did for a very long time. The true url of the site now holds the top spot for those search terms. Google took away with one hand and gave with the other.

But now I lost the benefit in page rank of all those one way inbound links that are all over the place, and I haven't seen a rise in actual page rank on the links that Google has replaced with the true URL's. They also are a PR1.

I am assuming that all freebie .tk domain names took a hit, but did the paid ones get hit as well? Does anyone have a paid .tk domain name that is a PR4 or higher that didn't get rank spanked this time around?

Adsense Earnings and What I Plan on Doing with My First Check

2008-03-16T10:42:00.005-04:00

I have had an adsense account for about 2 years now. At first I only had ads on my software site, which I later removed because I needed the space for another purpose, plus I didn't really have the traffic at that time to make anything from them. (I may put the ads back on there in the future, after I redesign the site, slightly)

I didn't get 'serious' into adsense till around September 2007, so most of my sites didn't have any ads on them at all, till that time.

So over the last 2 years, I didn't earn as much as I could have on some of my sites.

Here is the total earnings, as of today:

The SourceCode: $5.71
YouTube Video Units (I have them on 3 sites): $6.31
App's Apps: $0.93
Cranial Soup (this site): $3.98
Free Programming Ebooks: $81.54
omgplzstfukthx: $3.26
Read My Email: $2.69
RussoGraffix: $3.61
Snailware: $0.20
Voicemail Hall of Fame: $2.61

Total: $110.84

So I have finally hit the $100 mark, which means Google will be sending me my first check, very soon.

I had originally wanted to use a chunk of that first check to buy the domain name for the ebook site, in order to remove the .tk advertising and frame, and making it behave like a normal domain name. I had planned on paying for around 9 years of use so I wouldn't have to worry about coming up with the money for renewal for a long time. Since that site made the bulk of the money, I figured it would be the nicest way to give something back to my visitors.

I have to ask myself seriously though, if it is possible for me to come up with the money to renew all my other domains, which start expiring between October and December of this year. My first priority is to keep everything running smoothly and not to end up in some sort of financial jam that could put any of my sites at risk. I guess it would make more sense to wait for the second check to buy the .tk domain and stay on the free plan a bit longer. So I probably will be using this first check to cover the cost of renewals, rather than buying another domain name.

Then there is the issue of me not having an acceptable computer to use. $110.84 doesn't buy a computer any better than the piece of junk I am using right this minute, so I guess I will have to wait awhile or find another source of cash to fund that. (maybe I should start selling my unwashed socks on ebay, to guys with a foot fetish)

YouTube Video Ad Units - The Party Might Be Over

2008-02-29T00:29:00.003-05:00

I have placed YouTube ad units on most of my websites & blogs, primarily because up until now, it was a great way to sneak ads into pages when visitors are using ad blocking software. Because they didn't block YouTube content, the units would load, ads and all. Pretty crafty trick, huh?

I have made a decent amount by doing this, but I think those days might be over. While viewing this blog today with AdMuncher turned on, I noticed that not only did the ad not appear on the video units, but the videos themselves didn't load either.

I am going to have to keep an eye on what I am earning off the video units for a bit and see if they are still as profitable. If not, I will probably remove them from most of my sites. They are rather large and difficult to integrate into most site templates, in a way where they don't look out of place.

I had thought that they were a great idea when I heard about them, because they don't just put ads on your pages...they enhance your content by adding to it. Of course you don't get a lot of control over what videos are shown, but the ones that get shown by default on some pages are quite good, and depending on the content of your site, they can be quite relevant.

To see how the individual units are performing can be a bit of work, though, as they don't allow you to have channels like they do with the regular Adsense ads. All reporting is lumped together as "Video Units" in your Adsense account. If you want to know what sites are actually getting viewers for the units, you will have to perform a little "Google-fu" and do a specialized search for each your sites.

For example, if I want to see just how many viewers are watching on my ebook site, and see just what they are watching, I would have to perform a Google search for site:youtube.com "clicks from http://www.appsapps.info/ebooks/" which is the path to the site I want to check on. Then in the results, click each one and on the YouTube pages for the videos, click the link that says "Links" under the video. You will see a list of referring sites and yours should be there. It will also tell you how many visitors you referred from your site to that specific video.

While you won't be able to tell what sites are generating the ad clicks from the ad units on them, you will be able to tell which ones are being watched, what pages they are being watched from, what your visitors are seeing, and how many total referrals are coming from your site. This will give you some idea which sites they are doing well on and which sites are pointless to keep them.

Now I am not sure if there is any SEO benefit in these links to your site showing up on YouTube and I am not sure if the links themselves will generate any new traffic to your site, but those are possible factors you might want to consider or investigate while exploring this whole video units concept...as long as this new ad blocking of them doesn't affect it too badly.

My experiences with Project Wonderful

2008-02-26T01:41:00.004-05:00

I can't remember which blog I was on, but they had ads from Project Wonderful.

I have been looking for other ways to make money on my blogs and websites besides Adsense. I decided to give it a try.

It has been 16 days since I signed up and I figured I would let everyone know about my experiences with it so far, and some other thoughts I have had about the whole program.

Since one of my sites is an educational site that is accessed by a number of schools, I have to be careful about other sites I link to and what kinds of ads appear on it. Project Wonderful allows me to check each site and decide if I want to approve or reject it. I like this. I won't have to worry as much about who or what is advertising on my site. I can go see myself before the ad ever appears.

So how much money have I made? A big $0.44. That isn't very much for 16 days.

There is something that I have been thinking about though...

Are people clicking the ads that are appearing on my sites? No, not really, but I am clicking them all to check them before approving them. So I am being paid a tiny amount to look at other people's sites. And I look at their site even if they aren't the winning bid. Just the act of bidding, win or lose, will bring in some extra traffic.

Since I am checking all ads before they appear on my site, I have discovered quite a few really nice blogs and a lot of web comic sites, which I have sent the links to my daughter. She is nuts about web comics and is always looking for new ones she can get into, so it seemed like the logical thing to do.

Would I pay for placing an ad to one of my sites with Project Wonderful? Probably not, since the traffic it would generate would most likely be miniscule and not really boosting the traffic enough to make more off the ads that are already on my sites.

But you are allowed to bid and decide how much you are willing to pay per day for placement. And believe this is where the beauty of placing ads with them is. I think if you were to bid on every site where the ads are going for $0, you could do quite well generating some traffic without any cost involved. And at the very least, if you bid on a site that is run by someone that checks all ads, like I do, if you have a decent site you may win traffic from the 'secret traffic source' of Project Wonderful...the webmasters themselves.

If they like your site, it's all worth the no-cost effort. Advertising on a blogger's site and the webmaster liking your site, could turn into even better advertising if they like your site enough to tell their readers about it and give you a nice honest review and send their readers to you. At the very least, even if they don't write about it and you never get a click on your ad, you will have them as a fan, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Would I write about some of the sites that have bid on my ad box? Certainly, if the site excites me enough, and some have.

A few are about to get a bit more advertising than they had anticipated when they placed their bid. Rather than a day or so in a box on my ebook site, they are going to have a permanent spot here in this post.

Here is what I have discovered in the last 16 days that I found quite appealing:

Living on Adsense - A blog by a beginning blogger meant for beginning bloggers, sharing the knowledge he acquires with others, as he learns it, in a style that isn't boring or dry. This isn't the 'How to Get Rich Step-by-Step, Now Buy My Book' that you will find in other blogs of the sort. This guy is for real, and struggling with it, like the rest of us.

If you want to read about real experiences with trying to make money from blogging, this is a good one to read. If you are a little ahead in this game, a bit farther than this guy, maybe you would like to share some info with him and help him out. He wants to make a living from blogging and isn't doing too well at the moment. I think he could use a little advice and encouragement from his fellow "I am still broke & blogging" peers.

High T3ch - How do I describe this one? All I can say is that it is quite visually appealing and interesting. Lots of stuff from the world of science & technology, presented in a way that will appeal to the common person. Don't be afraid or think you aren't smart enough to understand. Dive in and learn a little something new.

impNERD - Nice blog if you are a blogger. Lots of stuff about social bookmarking, blogging, SEO, Wordpress, writing articles, marketing your blog, etc. Hopefully, Chris (from at Living on Adsense) is reading this and checking this one out. ;-)

Calamities of Nature - This is a rather well drawn and appealing web comic. One of the few that I have come across in the last 16 days that I would actually read. It's quite professional. And it seems the artist is starting to get some good exposure. Consider this little blurb of mine, approval, and a bit more publicity to help him out. He deserves it.

Technically Easy - An interesting blog that presents technical stuff in an easy to understand manner that even non-geeks can understand. He also does free website reviews, so if you want him to take a look at your site and write about it, ask him. He's an honest guy that will tell you and the world, the truth...the good, the bad, and the ugly. He scores +100 bonus internet points from me. I like a person with integrity.

So even though I have only made a measly $0.44, I think it was still worth it just to find some cool new sites. Once I have hit the minimum amount needed to place a bid, I'll be making some $0 bids and see if it has the same effect on other publishers as it has had on me.