Sharkbytes' Scavenger Hunt

I'm headed out hiking again, and in the meantime there is a contest running on one of my other blogs. Head on over there and check it out.

I'm also really happy to report that I sold a real ad on yet another blog!

Sharkbytes' Scavenger Hunt

web ad income July 23 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): One year ad and banner design $70.00 Adsense $.41 Adgitize $.52 Project Wonderful $.05 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.04 ______________________ Total: $71.03

Statcounter for Free Counters and Site Stats

I have been using Statcounter for over four years for both showing counters on web pages, and tracking statistics. The counters have never dumped their data, which is more than I can say for some counter programs.

It offers a number of ways to track statistics. I only use a few of them. For a quick view of what is going on, each page with a counter will show on the summary page with views for today, yesterday and all time.

But you can also choose to see much more detailed stats. You can get a graph of pageviews, and unique pageviews for any date range. You can see a map of where visitors came from, the pages they came from, keyword analysis, browsers, visit lengths, and many more.

In short, although I haven't compared item for item, you can get just about the same information as Google Analytics, without the slowness of all the scripts.

The major drawback is that with a free account your logfile only contains the most recent 500 entries. This means that you don't get to see all historical data. I use both Statcounter and Google Analytics. For quick looks at what is going on I use Statcounter. If I feel that I need to see all the data for the entire history of a site, I go to Google.

Statcounter

web ad income July 22 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.01 Adgitize $.57 Project Wonderful $.05 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.01 ______________________ Total: $.65

Quickly Minimize All Open Programs

A couple of days ago I talked about how to use the Quick Launch Tool Bar to get quick access to your most-used programs. But there is one icon there that is really handy to reveal the desktop.

See the little icon that I have circled in the graphic? I'm not sure what I think it looks like, but apparently it's supposed to be an empty monitor face.

If you need to be able to access something on your desktop in a hurry, just click that icon, and all your open programs will minimize without needing to click on them one by one.

web ad income July 21 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.22 Adgitize $.53 Project Wonderful $.04 Shareapic $.02 Clixsense $.07 ______________________ Total: $.89

Daily Blog Contest Contest!

Check out the contest for a pile of EC credits over at the Daily Blog Contest.

First Prize

25,000 Entrecard Credits

20,000 EntreCard credits sponsored by Make Money Blogging with Tycoon Blogger

1,500 credits sponsored by Blogging School

1,500 credits sonsored by EnglishShort Story

1,000 credits sponsored by so far, so good

1,000 credits sponsored by A lonely planet it is not

Featured Link and 3 month link on front page on Blog Directory - Blogfluence.com (pr3 blog directory)

Second Prize

12,000 Entrecard credits

10,000 Entrecard Credits sponsored by Daily Blog Contest

2,000 credits sponsored by Serradinho

What do I need to do?

Here is how to enter: There are two requirements to enter-

1. Blog about this contest and link to the post at Daily Blog Contest. Your blog post must contain the links to the sponsors.

2. Post a comment Daily Blog Contest and let the owner know that you. have made the post and provide a link.

It has not been posted when the contest ends. Follow the link to see when that is announced.

web ad income July 12 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $1.01 Adgitize $.59 Project Wonderful $.05 Shareapic $.02 Clixsense $.05 ______________________ Total: $1.72

Using the Quick Launch Task Bar

Did you know that you can easily change which little icons show at the bottom left of the screen, and their order? That section of the Task Bar is called Quick Launch.

It's as easy as drag and drop! From My Computer or Explorer, you can drag any program icon to that area of the task bar. And you can drag them around if you don't like the order they are in, since only 3 will display without expanding the menu.

If Quick Launch doesn't show, right click on the Task Bar, scroll to Toolbars, and make sure that Quick Launch is checked.

web ad income July 19 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.02 Adgitize $.63 Project Wonderful $.03 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.08 ______________________ Total: $.77

Shared Reviews - Ranking and ShareScore

Shared Reviews is a product review site which focuses on very personal interactions of people with products.

There are several different kinds of ranking systems in play for participants in the community.

Individually, there is a Quantity called ShareScore (SS). SS is supposed to be something of a measure of community responsibility. Everyone who joins enters the community with a 50% SS. Actions one takes will cause that to go up or down. The actual quantities associated with the following actions are not known to members. But from experience, and postings in the forum by the administrators, we know the following:

Ways to increase your ShareScore:

• Post a new review- about 1%
• Vote for reviews- not always clear- about 20 votes for 1%. Be sure to let the page fully load before you vote.
• No one is sure if leaving comments improves SS, but it is clear that poor commenting technique will reduce it (see below)
• If you report a review for serious offenses such as plagiarism, and that is subsequently supported by an admin review you will gain SS. Reporting minor problems such as incorrect formatting may not be worth SS.
• Being accepted as a friend under certain circumstances.

Things that decrease your ShareScore:

• Leaving useless comments. Short comments, or ANY comment with the word "voted" or "review" (eg. "nice review, I voted for you") in it will have a negative impact. This is because the comments become part of the body of the review which may be marketed- comments need to be relevant.
• When you send someone a friend request your SS will drop by a point. When they accept you will get that point back. The reasoning here is that you should make contact with someone first, through a message, ask them if they want to be friends, and then completing the transaction with no net loss for anyone.
• Having a review pulled for various offenses: putting things in the wrong category, incorrect formatting, exceptionally poor English, reviewing a service rather than a product, reviewing items that don't fit within the SR categories. If you plagiarize a review your SS won't matter because you will be banned forever.
• If you reported a review and the administrators deem that your reason was invalid.
• If you vote for a review that is pulled for any of these offenses, your vote will be returned, but you will lose SS. The one exception is that you will not lose SS for plagiarized reviews because it is not expected that voters check every review to see if it appears somewhere else on the web. Nevertheless, one can usually sense whether a review is an honest expression of someone's experiences. When in doubt, don't vote.
• It was just announced that not logging in to SR for 60 days will result in a temporary decrease of SS, to reward regular participants. When an inactive member logs in their SS will return to the level it was before their hiatus.
• Members who are banned for violations of the TOS will have their SS set to 0%

What difference does ShareScore make?

• If you have 91-100% SS you will have the most votes to give. The actual amount may vary from month to month.
• If you have a SS of 75-89% you will have more votes to give.
• If you have a SS of 50-74% you will have fewer votes to give.
• If you have a SS of 25-49% you will have even fewer votes to give.
• If you have a SS of 0-24% you will only have one vote allowed in each category.
• Your SS will directly affect the ranking of your reviews within a category (see below). This is quite new, and may be tweaked.
• How the top review ("popularity")in each subcategory is determined has just changed. It used to be based solely on votes in a month. Now, the number of pageviews by people outside of SR is figured into the equation. How much those pageviews are worth is directly tied to your SS. If your SS is 100% the popularity is the number of votes plus the number of pageviews. As the SS of the author decreases the value of their pageviews also decreases.

Rank
When you go to the home page at Shared Reviews there is a parade of people who are the top 40 members on any given day will appear. How this rank is determined has just undergone some changes. It is a combination of the following factors, calculated by a formula unknown to the members: total reviews written, reviews written in the current month, votes given this month, votes received this month, friends, referrals, sharescore and total review pageviews.

Although Shared Reviews is still undergoing many changes, it is possible to rise to a good ranking position. This is the first month of the return of shared revenue. I'll report later on what kinds of amounts of income people were able to make.

Shared Reviews

web ad income July 18 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.31 Adgitize $.58 Project Wonderful $.03 Shareapic $.01 ______________________ Total: $.93

Shared Reviews- Big Changes in July

Shared Reviews is a product review site which focuses on very personal interactions of people with products.

As of July 1, 2009, they are back on track to begin sharing revenue with participants. The means by which that revenue is shared can change from month to month, within a basic framework. The owners realize that the site must be able to pay for itself in order to be able to have any money to share.

For this month the total payout will be $1500. Here is how that is to be divided:
There are 424 sub-categories of products,and the total will be split evenly amongst them. The top review will earn 50% of that total, second place 30%, and third place 20%. Any amount earned by a review will be split evenly between the author receiving 50%, and the voters sharing the other 50% evenly.

For example any one category will have $1500/424 = $3.55. Of this 50% or $1.77 will go to the top review. The author of that review will get 50% of that or $.88 If 25 people voted for it they will split the remaining $.88, and earn $.88/25 = $.035 each.

There are also some contests going on:
1) Most Votes Received:
1. $25
2. $20
3. $15
4. $10
5. $5

2) Most Published Reviews:
1. $25
2. $20
3. $15
4. $10
5. $5

3) Most Popular Video Review: $50 to the top video review by votes!
4) There are several small categories where the top new review will receive $5.

Tomorrow I will explain how a person can gain what is known as Share Score, and how this will affect the ranking of a review, and a person's ranking on the site.

Shared Reviews

web ad income July 17 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.57 Adgitize $.50 Project Wonderful $.02 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.06 ______________________ Total: $1.06

Firefox 3.5 - First Impressions

I was all prepared to love Firefox 3.5, but after using it for a day, I think you should wait until they get some bugs worked out before rushing out to download it.

These are strictly personal experiences. If you want the specs, head for their web site. Right off the bat though the introduction video wouldn't play on one of my computers (not a dinosaur), so that should have been a message right there.

Supposedly 3.5 deals with javascript better. One problem with FF 3.0.x is that when you surf through Entrecard or Adgitize sites the browser gets so balled up with the javascript for their frames that every couple of hours it is so constipated that I have to close down the browser and sometimes reboot to get it to keep lumbering along. Before reaching that point it goes into "Not Responding" mode every so often and I had to wait for it to resolve its backlog of tasks.

With FF 3.5, it simply won't let me move away from the page that it's struggling with until it has finished speaking with that script. It acquires no backlog, but I have to wait for every page to do its thing. And there is no little waiting hourglass, all you get is an arrow that won't do anything no matter where you click. This is really maddening! I can't even wait till it jams up and then go make a cup of tea while it resolves itself. I'm just wasting time all the time.

And it has some problems with some interfaces. On a site where I am very active I can no longer reply to posts in the forum or upload pictures. I had to open IE (shhh) to accomplish those tasks.

And for you Entrecarders, the toolbar is not compatible with FF 3.5.

I was going to downgrade, but they've taken 3.x off their site as an option. If you want to downgrade you will need to go back to version 2.x. That strikes me as a particularly mean move on their part. I think my love affair with Firefox is over.

Be brave and download Firefox 3.5

web ad income July 16 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.02 Adgitize $.55 Project Wonderful $.01 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.02 My Survey $.10 ______________________ Total: $.71

Entrecard Acquired by Ziprunner

I'm sure this will be posted everywhere in a few hours, but Entercard has changed hands, and this is bound to mean yet more changes. Graham Langdon, founder of Entrecard, sent an email at 12:50 EDT today:

It is with great excitement that I announce Entrecard.com, Inc. has been acquired by Los Angeles based ZipRunner Inc.

ZipRunner has the resources, vision, and dedication to Entrecard that will allow it to grow in pursuit of the vision I laid out nearly two years ago.

Moving forward, my relationship to Entrecard will be that of an adviser, and I will help the good folks at ZipRunner take the whole project to the next level. Expect a follow up communication from them very soon.

ZipRunner Inc. was chosen out of a number of potential suitors because of the resources they can dedicate to the project, their exciting vision for the company's future, and their understanding of social media and the blogosphere.

I urge you all to look forward to a bigger, better Entrecard, and I couldn't be more proud to bring it to this point before passing the torch. I've heard first hand all the great things that are in store for the company and it's members, and needless to say it has me quite excited.

Entrecard

web ad income July 15 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $1.10 Adgitize $.55 Project Wonderful $.03 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.10 ______________________ Total: $1.79

A Category Tree for Shared Reviews

If you like voting on Shared Reviews, but have a hard time navigating the categories, try using this no-frills list:

Automotive ATV Accessories ATVs Car Audio Car Care Accessories Car Security Systems Convertibles Economy Cars GPS Hybrid Cars Luxury Cars Minivans Motorcycle Accessories Motorcycles Motorsports Accessories Original Equipment Parts Performance Parts Radar Detectors Roof Racks / Trailers Scooters Sedans Snowmobile Accessories Snowmobiles Sports Cars Station Wagons SUVs Tires Trucks Wheels/ Rims	Beauty Acne Products Anti-aging treatments Bath Products Beauty Tools Cosmetics Deoderants Dermabrasion Hair Products Hair Removal Hair Styling Laser Hair Removal Nail Products Perfumes/ Colognes Skin Cleansers Skin Lotions Sunscreens Tanning Lotions Tooth Whitening Waxing
Books Music & Movies Baby Books Baby Videos Children's Books Children's Videos Cookbooks Fiction Books Gardening Books Magazines Motivational / Self Help Movie HD/ DVDs Music CDs Musical Instruments Newspapers Non-Fiction Books Toddler Books Travel Guides	Clothing Athletic & Sportswear Baby Clothing Children's Clothing Children's Footwear Gloves Handbags & Wallets Hats Jeans Jewelry Lingerie Maternity Clothing Men's Clothing Men's Footwear Outdoor Apparel Sleepwear Socks Suits Sunglasses Toddler Clothing Uniforms/ Workwear Watches Women's Clothing Women's Footwear
Computers Cables & Wires Computer Cases Computer Peripherals Computer Security Computer Speakers Coolers & Accessories Desktops DVD Burners Ergonomic Accessories Hard Drives Laptop Batteries Laptop Cases Laptops Memory Cards Modems Monitors Networking PDAs Printers & Accessories Processors Recordable CDs Recordable DVDs Routers Scanners Software Sound Cards USB Flash Drives Video Cards Video Conferencing VoIP Web Telephony & Conf Webcams	Electronics Answering Machines Audio Components Audio Speakers Batteries Cables & Wires Camcorders CD Players Cellular Accessories Cellular Phones Corded Phones Cordless Phones CRT TVs Digital Cameras DJ Equipment DVD/ Blue Ray Players DVRs Film Cameras GPS systems Headphones Home / Office Security Systems Home Audio Systems Home Theaters Karaoke Machines LCD Televisions MP3 players Music Recording Equipment Pagers / Beepers Photo Printing Photography Equipment Plasma TVs Projection TVs Projectors Radios Remote Controls Satellite Dishes Satellite Phones Satellite Radios Satellite TV Two-way Radios
Financial & Insurance Accounting Software Auto Financing Auto Insurance Bank Accounts Bill Payments Business Loans Cash Advances Credit Cards Credit Reports Credit Unions Debt Consolidation House Insurance Investment Products Life Insurance Online Banking Personal Loans Retirement Planning Tax Planning Tax Software	Fitness Dumbbells & Racks Elliptical Trainers Exercise Equipment Heart Rate Monitors Home Gyms Instructional Products Kickboxing/ Boxing Resistance Products Rowers Stair Climbers Steps & Benches Trampolines Treadmills Water Exercise Products Weights Workout Videos Yoga/ Pilates
Gaming Action Games Billiards Board Games Card Games Computer Games Darts Educational Games Flash Games Game Controllers / Accessories Hand Held Game Systems Lawn Games Puzzles Remote Control Toys Strategy Games Table Games Video Game Consoles Video Games Word Games	Garden & Tools BBQ Accessories BBQs Fertilizers Gazebos / Shelters Greenhouses Hand Tools Hedge Trimmers Hoses / Accessories Lawn Edging Lawnmowers Leaf Blowers Outdoor Decor Outdoor Lighting Patio Furniture Paving Pest Control Pools & Accessories Power Lawn Equipment Power Tools Pressure Washers Snowblowers Storage / Sheds Weed Control Weed Eaters Wheelbarrows / Wagons
Health Allergy Medications Alternative Medicine Blood Pressure Monitors Cold & Flu Medicines Contact Lenses Contraceptives / Lubricants Dental Care Electric Toothbrushes Eyecare Eyeglasses First Aid Supplies Foot Spas Glucose Meters Insect Repellent Medical Devices Medications Men's Personal Products Muscle Pain Relievers Pain Relievers Prescription Medications Smoking Cessation Thermometers Toothpaste Vitamins/ Supplements Weight Loss Products Women's Personal Products	Homes & Mortgages Equity & Reverse Mortgages Mobile Homes Modular Homes Mortgage Refinancing Strata Management Title Information
Household Air Conditioning Air Purifiers / Humidifiers Bedding & Linens Beds & Mattresses Cabinets Candles / Home Fragrances Cleaning Products Cookware Doors & Windows Fans Floor Coverings Furnaces & Heaters Furniture Home Decor Home Safety Products Home Security Interior/ Exterior Paint Irons Kitchen & Bathroom Accessories Kitchen Knives Large Appliances Lighting Sewing Machines Small Appliances Smoke/ CO Detectors Storage Facilities Tableware Tools Vacuum Cleaners Water Filters Water Heaters Window Coverings	Kids Baby Accessories Baby Bath Products Baby Carriers Baby Food Baby Furniture Baby Monitors Car Seats Child Safety Children's Clothing Children's Furniture Diapers Feeding Aids High Chairs Maternity Products Potty Chairs Strollers
Office Briefcases Calculators Chairs Copiers Daytimers Desks Envelopes & Mailers Fax Machines Filing Systems Labels & Labelers Money Counters & Storers Office Accessories Paper Goods Paper Shredders Pencils & Pens Printing services Safes	Recreation Backpacks Baseball Equipment Bike Accessories Binoculars Boating Accessories Boats Camping Equipment Children's Bikes Fishing Gear Golf Equipment Hunting & Accessories Inline Skates Laser Tag Equipment Martial Arts Mountain Bikes Outdoor Clothing Outdoor Equipment Paintball Equipment Racquets Road Bikes Running Gear Scuba Diving Equipment Skis & Snowboards Sporting Goods Sports Equipment Squash & Racquetball Stadiums & Sporting Facilities Summer Camps Winter Accessories
Shopping Antiques Arts & Crafts Cellular Phone Plans Chocolate & Candy Collectibles Figurines Fragrances Greeting Cards Long Distance Phone Plans Luggage Novelty Gifts Pet Supplies Posters Stationery	Toys Action Figures Activity / Play Centers Arts & Crafts Supplies Baby Toys Building Toys Dolls Educational Toys Outdoor Toys Playpens Remote Control Toys Ride-on Toys Sandbox Toys Science Toys Stuffed Animals Toy Cars Toy Organizers Water Toys
Travel Adult Vacations Adventure Vacations htsAirlines & Flights All-Inclusive Vacations Budget Travel Business Travel Car Rentals Cruises Destinations Educational Travel Family Vacations Golf Vacations Honeymoon Vacations Hotels Resorts Singles Vacations Skiing Vacations State Parks & Campgrounds Travel Insurance Travel Packages Travel Tours Whale Watching Tours	Weddings Bridal Accessories Bridesmaid's Dresses Cakes Stationery Tuxedos Wedding Gowns Wedding Rings

Sign up at Shared Reviews
See Sharkbytes' Shared Reviews Profile
See a list of Sharkbytes' Reviews

web ad income July 14 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.25 Adgitize $.51 Project Wonderful $.03 Shareapic $.02 Clixsense $.04 ______________________ Total: $.85

Erasing Images on the Powershot Canon SX10IS

So your card is full and you'd like to ditch just a few pictures on the Canon Powershot SX10IS so you can take one more. You know it should be easy.... It is.

Turn the camera on. Use the top right button on the back of the camera to switch to image review. It has a little blue arrowhead beside it (and is shown with a yellow arrow in the picture). Use the rocker bar (indicated below with a green arrow, right and left) to find the image you want to delete.

Press the bottom button of those three on the top right. It has a blue picture of a trash can beside it and is indicated in the picture here with a pink arrow.



At the bottom of the screen you will now see three words: Erase? Erase Cancel. Erase will be highlighted. If you do want to erase this image press Function Set in the middle of the rocker bar. If you don't want to erase it, use the rocker bar to highlight Cancel and then press Function Set.

The screen will switch to the single word "busy" while the image is erased. Then you can use the rocker bar to select other images or turn the camera off.

To see other posts about this camera, enter Canon SX10IS in the search box at the upper left or click on the word camera in the labels below this post.

web ad income July 13 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.30 Adgitize $.56 Project Wonderful $.04 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.04 Pine Cone Research $3.00 ______________________ Total: $3.95

Pine Cone Reasearch Surveys

Pine Cone Research is a part of Neilson, as in the TV Neilson ratings. They are much more focused on collecting information than on providing money-making opportunities for participants. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed being a part of the surveys.

For one thing, their status makes me more confident that the surveys are well-designed and that my input really might mean something.

Surveys pay $3.00 which is paid promptly by PayPal. However, there may be several "pre-survey" questionnaires which earn you only an entry into a drawing for $500. I am sent (by email) about one paid survey a month.

They are very serious about screening participants for integrity. You must sign an agreement every single time that you will not reveal anything about the new products in the surveys.

Finally, there is no link that I can give you to sign up. You may occasionally see an ad appear for Pine Cone Research while you are surfing the web. If you are interested in participating, don't ever skip this and just assume you will click it another time, because you may never see it again. Click the link, apply, and see if you can get accepted.

web ad income July 12 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.40 Adgitize $.52 Project Wonderful $.06 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.06 ______________________ Total: $1.05

Sound Settings on Canon Powershot SX10IS

The sounds on the Canon Powershot SX10IS are pretty nice. When you take a picture the sound is that of a shutter releasing on a film camera. For those of us making the switch from a SLR to digital, it's a reassuring sound, even if it is totally fake.

One can choose to turn the sound off or on through the menu. Turn the camera on. Press the Menu button on the back, lower right, and then use the rocker bar to select the second tab. It has a picture of two little tools on it. The first selection is Mute. Again use the rocker bar to move down to it, and then select Off or On. Keep in mind that this is sort of backwards thinking. Mute On = no sound. Then press Menu again to return to the viewer screen, or simply turn the camera off.

However, the sounds were mysteriously turning themselves off, and I couldn't figure out why.

There is a button on the top of the camera, to the left of the flash, with a little blue picture of a microphone beside it. If you hold that button down while turning the camera on it will mute the sound. This is handy if you want to take a picture of something like wildlife, or maybe in church, where the camera sounds may be distracting.

To turn the sounds back on, you need to do so through the Menu settings as explained above.

As I noted when I first began using the Canon Powershot SX10IS, it is very easy to accidentally press one or more of the buttons accidentally.

web ad income July 11 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.04 Adgitize $.49 Project Wonderful $.05 Shareapic $.01 ClixSense $.03 ______________________ Total: $.62

Tracking Daily Earnings

The votes were cast, and the few people who are interested mostly preferred to see the pennies mount up each day. So here's what I'm going to do:

Each day I'll report the previous day's earnings on sites that I do ultimately plan to cash out. Some sites, such as TrafficNowFire, and CMF ads, and Entrecard offer cash out plans, but I only expect to use their points to be turned around into further advertising. So I'm not going to track those as cash.

However, at the end of the month, I'll also do a report on what I actually cashed out during the past 30 days. I'm not going to try to reconcile that with the daily tally like a checkbook... it would never work out. But that should give you some idea of how it's really going.

When I'm away hiking or whatever, the daily totals just aren't going to happen, and then I'll only do the monthly totals.

So- here are yesterdays figures:

web ad income July 10 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.03 Adgitize $.51 Project Wonderful $.04 Shareapic $.01 ClixSense $.07 ______________________ Total: $.66

Lynx Helps Analyze Web Sites and Blogs

The Lynx Viewer is a program that returns the text mode view of a web page. Thus, it removes all images, notes the names of those images if you have provided an ALT tag, and presents frames in a linear fashion from left to right and top to bottom.

This gives you at least two pieces of important information. First, this is how search engines see your site. Links are numbered in brackets, internal frames are labeled as such with their linking address, and all text appears as... text. At the end is a list of the link numbers with their corresponding links.

This can also help you understand how the web site will appear to the vision impaired who have set their browsers to see only enlarged text. All text is rendered in only an 80-column output.

For occasional use, you can enter a URL at Yellowpipe- Lynx. For regular use it is recommended that you download the tool to your local computer.

What Constitutes a Successful Blog?

I am forever reading articles about how to make your blog a success. Very rarely do these articles define success, but for most of them, the implication is that success is equivalent to making money.

Certainly this is one possible goal for a blogger, but I think that there might be other very valid reasons to blog that have nothing to do with money, and the goals will have a strong bearing on how the author writes, promotes, markets, and monetizes his or her blog.

Here are a few possible reasons to maintain a web log:

• To make money
• To educate on a particular topic
• To promote a product or service
• To collect news of a particular topic into one location
• To promote a sense of community within a particular group
• To stay in touch with family or friends (similar to the previous goal but more personal)
• As a creative outlet
• As an outlet for one's own personal feelings and experiences.

In order to make money one must do a fair number of all the things that are explained on so many blogs- search engine optimization, discoverable titles, keyword density, affiliate marketing, advertising, and all the rest of it. Even though the stated purpose of this blog is to make money, each of my other blogs is maintained for one or more of the alternate reasons. I believe that these are just as valid.

To build a sense of community within a particular group it is really important to make sure that the members know about the blog, it might be less important to advertise it to the general public. How would success be measured here? Perhaps by the number of comments, participation in polls, percent of members who know about the blog, and consider it essential to being "in."

If your blog is a creative outlet, discoverable titles may feel like a death knell. There is nothing catchy about a title such as "Ten Sarcastic Reasons to Bathe the Dog." Something like "Don't Break My Flea Soap Bubble!" won't help the SEO, but may make you much happier.

To promote a product or service, SEO may be very important, but revenue generation is deferred by one degree. The blog itself is probably not expected to make money. However, the quality of the articles might be even more important than in other blog styles.

This post is not meant to be a definitive statement on all the reasons one might choose to blog, but only to point out that there are several valid goals.

If making money is your goal, I would suggest that you consider the ethics of the many options available to help you rake in the cash. The number of pyramid schemes, rip-offs, shady deals and scams is amazing. Freedom without responsibility is anarchy.

Easy Traffic Solution - Traffic Exchange Site

Easy Traffic Solution is a very new traffic exchange program. I'm actually member number 68. It works really well, and it's biggest drawback at the current time is that it needs more blogs to belong.

Like most of the traffic exchanges the member pages open in a frame, and a link must be clicked after a certain amount of time. It's 15 seconds in this case. It is a 1:1 exchange which means that your page is shown one time for every page you view for 15 seconds. This is good- some sites are 1:2 or even lower. When you sign up you get 100 free credits so your site will become visible right away.

You can also buy credits through PayPal at a very reasonable price. Once you apply your site will need to be manually approved by the administration. This should take less than 24 hours. When people sign up under you, you get 0.1 credit every time a page of theirs is shown. Multiple blogs are allowed.

The quality of the sites you will view isn't quite as high as what you will see on Blog Explosion, but it's decent- not all get rich quick sites.

I like the fact that you seem to get hits to your site spread out a bit and not all bunched up as soon as you log in and start surfing.

There are no games to play or frills- just traffic exchange. If they can get enough sites to make it viable it should be a really good deal.

Easy Traffic Solution

Entrecard's Latest Fiasco?

Entrecard has announced that it is going to try to lower the bounce rate caused by those who drop on the sites in the system. In the June 30 Entrecard blog, Graham stated, "Starting soon, “dropping and running” will no longer give you credit. We are developing a proprietary algorithm to determine whether or not you engaged in the blog you visited in some way. If you did not engage in the blog, you will not get credit. We won’t be disclosing exactly the algorithm we use, so that people can’t game it easily."

Naturally this is causing yet another round of furor. Almost everyone is assuming that it will involve leaving a comment on every blog. This brings up a round of objections such as commenting on blogs that don't post every day, meaningless comments and more.

Other people think that it will be a simple timer. This doesn't sound very proprietary. Personally, I doubt that a comment on every blog will be required.

But no matter what the algorithm is, it seems really strange to me that the Entrecard administration would choose to shake things up again so soon after the last upsetting change (introducing paid ads). At least in my experience, things are just now getting back to some level of stability. Some traffic has returned and new connections are being made where bloggers who left created gaps in some networks.

Without a really high connection speed it isn't really possible to drop 300 EC's a day anyway. If credit now will not be given for some percentage of those drops, I think it's going to become increasingly hard to justify trying to earn enough EC's to advertise.

What do you think?

See Taking action against the bounce rate from Entrecard Blog

LifeStraw Poised to Save Millions

The LifeStraw, developed by Vestergaard Frandsen of Switzerland, has been reported by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to be extremely effective for personal water purification in third world countries.

It comes in two styles, personal and family. The personal unit operates like a straw, while the family unit is gravity fed.

Internally the units consist of two fabric prefilters, an iodine chamber, and finally a carbon filter. It is capable of removing 99.999% of protozoa, bacteria and viruses, down to 15 microns in size. It is effective against the most serious waterborne illnesses, such as typhoid and diarrhea, that kill at least 2 million people every year in the developing world. For victims of hurricanes or other natural disasters it can provide a safety net until clean water becomes available.

The personal unit will clean about 185 gallons, and the family unit about 4700 gallons before needing replacement.

It has been suggested as an alternative for backpackers, but reports disagree as to whether this is a safe use. Giardia cysts (beaver feaver) and Cryptosporidium are smaller than 15 microns in size. These organisms are found in most North American natural waters and are sources of risk for backpackers.

However, the recent test reports from Vestergaard Frandsen show it exceeding US EPA standards of removal even for the 4-6 micron Cryptosporidium cysts.

The product is not yet available on the retail market.

See June 2009Vestergaard Frandsen press release
See Vestergaard Frandsen test results

Image Problems in Firefox 3.5 beta

Are you having troubles with some websites displaying properly in the beta version of Firefox 3.5? The problem may be with blocked images.

In fact, even with FF 3.xx, you have the ability to block images on specific sites rather than universally.

There are two ways to access these settings. One way is through the Tools / Options / Content. Then be sure that Load Images Automatically is checked. Note that you can click on exceptions to see if there are any sites which have been individually flagged to not load the images. Apparently with FF 3.5 beta, some people are having certain sites flagged as exceptions without knowing how it happened. Until the bugs are fixed, you may need to manually change the settings.

You can also get to this information by clicking on the favicon at the left end of the address bar. This will drop down a small box. Click on More Information. Then click on Media in the box that opens and you will see the following screen:

You can then scroll any of the choices associated with that particular site. If you select one then you can check the box, or not, to block images.

This can be a handy feature to make some sites that are overloaded with useless images easier to navigate.

Choosing Links in Adgitize Frames

Now that the up-and-coming Adgitize blog advertising system has over 100 paying advertisers, one does not need to find all the ads in order to get full credit (100 points) for daily clicking. In fact, advertisers only need to click 50 ads each day to get full points. So, is there a way you can control which ads you see, so that you can click on your favorites?

Today, there are 122 advertisers in the Adgitize system. If you only need to click 50, and you've been looking at the choices for more than a couple of days, you probably have some favorites in the list, and some you'd just as soon skip.

The ads are served up randomly, and you will only be given ones you haven't clicked on yet today. But what if the ones you see are ones you don't want to click? Do you have to just go to a completely different blog, or reload the page to be given different choices? No.

If you right click on the Adgitize box, you will see that one of the choices is "Reload Frame." Select that, and only the Adgitize box will reload, with different ads for you to choose from.

Adgitize- sign up under me!

Trying out Shareapic

There are lots of great picture sharing services out there, but I have decided to try out Shareapic.net. You are paid for views of your pictures at the rate of about $2 per 1000 image views. This can vary by the month, and traffic from some countries is worth less than others. For bloggers or other web sites, one can link to either an individual picture or a gallery.

Users retain all rights to their pictures, but must accept that others are likely to link to them. No adult content, and all photos uploaded to the site must be the property of the member that uploads them.

Once you sign up, it's awkward to get to the login screen. Click again on "Sign Up," and then on "Members Area." This will then present the login boxes. To get to the FAQ's you need to look at the small print at the bottom of the home page. All the appropriate information is available, but it's not necessarily easy to find.

Once you are a member, you can create galleries and upload pictures.

Shareapic.net

Tracking Income from Blogging

When I began this blog, I was providing a small tally each day of how much I had earned that day. However, I was away from home for several weeks after that, so wasn't able to track the numbers daily. Now, I know better than to think that I'll get rich working on line, but If I could even manage to pull in the value of two blue poker chips a day I could pay my bills and support my hobbies.

Meanwhile, I've had second thoughts about whether it makes more sense to track the daily pennies, or simply report total amounts when they are cashed out. I've added a poll in the sidebar to ask any of you readers who are following this if you have an opinion.

Reporting daily is interesting- to see how slowly the income trickles in, however, some of that money might never be cashed out if sites fail, I prefer to reinvest in advertising, or for other reasons. Reporting actual money transferred to me, by PayPal or checks etc, is a more honest report, but makes it difficult for anyone to see how the money accumulated.

There are examples of both styles below:

Cash earned on line and paid to me in June:

Old balance paid in full by Shared Reviews $239.00 Writing for Textbroker (prefer not to give this information, but it is a significant portion of my income) MySurvey.com $60.00 Writing at Associated Content $2.09 Adgitize $11.08 minus Adgitize Ad $14.00 ______________________ Total: $297.17

OR

Cash earned on line today:

web ad income today (3 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.18 Adgitize $.58 Project Wonderful $.10 ClixSense $.09 Pine Cone Research $3.00 ______________________ Total: $3.95

Clix Sense - Projected Earnings

I reported about a week ago that I signed up at Clix Sense. Here's an update. To see the initial report follow the link at the end of this post.

With the premium upgrade there was a backlog of almost 500 sites to visit. That put nearly $5.00 in my account. But what I did not know was how frequently the opportunities would be replenished. There have been several new sites in my queue every day. The fewest has been three, and the most ten. Almost all the clicks are worth one cent, but occasionally there is one worth two or three cents. My account is now at $5.63.

At a projected average of five cents a day, before my $10 annual membership expires on June 21, 2010, I can make $18, plus the $5.63 I have, minus the membership, that's a net gain of $13.63. That's sure not a big haul, and don't forget that $3 check processing fee that would knock it down to $10.63 if I cash out then. But it's easy to do.

Clix Sense
See Trying Out Clix Sense