What A Slacker!

Wii Let the Downloading Begin

Add comment June 4th, 2008

Wii lets you download old school video games by buying points and using those points towards those downloads. Technically you are not buying the games you are licensing the games so I am not sure what will happen should Nintendo ever pull that license. I guess your Wii would just stop playing the games. Which really kind of sucks. Also you cannot play your games on other Wii systems. Again this sucks. I “bought” it I should be able to play it where ever, when ever. So what good is saving the games to an SD card if they can’t travel? Okay, so I’ll still download as it is easier than digging out the old NES to play Zelda.

The Almighty NoFollow Tag

Add comment May 28th, 2008

As bloggers we all become relatively aware of the nofollow tag. We might not know what it means or why we use it but we know about it. For most of us the nofollow attribute is automatically added to the links people post in our comments. This is to help us stop comment spamming. (I know you know what that is. What blogger hasn’t opened their admin to see a ton of nonsense and links to gambling, insurance or porn sites.)

Well, the rel=”nofollow” added to the html of a standard link tells a search engine not to follow that link. By not following the link they will not count that link towards that sites link popularity. Has this knowledge stopped the spammers? No. Does it hurt you or your blog? No. It does, however, hurt the people you would like to be linking to. Therefore I do not recommend using the nofollow tag in your posts if you wish to give that person some internet props and help out their link popularity and ultimately their page ranks.

It seems all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) have agreed to honor this new tag. Although it appears that is not the case and it is largely ignored.

My advice to you is to make sure all your hard work in getting reciprocal links is not destroyed by those two little words. Be sure you request a link back to you that is does not contain that particular little snippet of coding. Why anyone seeking links or articles to drive traffic or exposure would choose to use that tag is beyond me.

Check out the Search Engine Journal’s article 13 Reasons Why NoFollow Tags Suck for a better explanation why you don’t want or need this tag clogging up your html code. But as a blogger the best defense against comment spamming is to moderate your comments carefully to keep that junk from even hitting your site. Your readers will appreciate being able to actually read the comments instead of all the ping backs and scrolling nonsense text.

Does Your Blog Have What It Takes

Add comment May 21st, 2008

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to impress the blogosphere? Well then prove it. Write your best post and then head on over to YearBlook.com.

Yearblook.com is a contest to find the best blog posts on the net. Each day a winner will be chosen. All the winners will then be compiled into a big book of blogs. Yes, an actual book will be published. That’s right your work will actually be published in the real world. Go figure.

As a blogger you can go over and submit your own posts or your friends can do it for you. Once you are nominated you’ll want to have all your online friends head over and vote for you.

Fear not you won’t be losing your rights to your own works. If you win they will contact you to work out the licensing for inclusion into the finished book.

Okay, so being in a book isn’t quite enough for you. How’s about money will that satisfy? Each month the winner for top blog that month has a chance to get $100. Not too shabby, huh?

Well there is one more reason to submit your blog. Free advertisement for you. That’s right drive traffic and increase your audience. Really, I am not seeing a negative to being a part of YearBlook.com.

Need More Business Cards Time to Reorder

Add comment May 14th, 2008

Well I have finally given away the last of my business cards. I had some made up last year for my website over at Vista Print. Since they are completely gone now it is time to head back over to their website and reorder some more. The site is so easy to use and you really do get professional quality printing at an amazingly low price. I also had matching magnets made at the same time. I couldn’t have been happier, but I guess that goes without saying since I will be reordering more.

They have tons of special offers, even free merchandise, but I opted to upload my own graphics and then I got a high gloss front, which looked so cool with the black background. I just logged in and reordering couldn’t be easier. They still have my cards on files and all I had to do was hit a button and review my cards. If I hadn’t uploaded the card design as an image I could have edited it during review before finalizing my purchase, which I did not do just yet.

I still have to go back and find my original artwork. They have so other items besides just business cards and magnets. They have invitations, cards, rubber stamps, and promotional items just to name a few.

Speaking of promotions during check out, if your order is over $15, you’ll be offered a free magazine from one of their partners. Well if, like me, you choose to decline the offer be sure to click the link to get a rebate form. Fill that out and you can request rebate for the stated value ($10) of the offer. Not a bad deal.

Few Simple Pros and Cons on SocialSpark.com

Add comment May 13th, 2008

I have been a member of SocialSpark for two weeks now and I see many possibilities and a few drawbacks.

Of course the biggest plus is the chance to make money from your blog posts. That’s a no brainer. It’s really all about the networking; making connections. Increase your link popularity by taking the blog u back offers from other users.

What’s a blog u back offer you ask? Pretty self-explanatory really. You take someone up on their offer and write a post or review linking back to their blog and they will in turn do the same for you. It is a win-win situation.

The SocialSpark Code of Ethics is clear and concise. Making SocialSpark a pleasure to deal with and search engine friendly unlike other paid post opportunities out there.

So what are the drawbacks? As I mentioned before all the bells and whistles on the site do not allow for users with older browsers. So update your browser or forget it.

Even more annoying than that is the fact that the opportunities are generally not available and you need to wait for a slot. Not too bad as long as you can get to your email ASAP and write the post within the 12 hours allotted to you once they send you a reservation. In my case I get these emails at 12am Eastern Standard Time. Being on the east coast I lose 8 hours right off the bat and cannot always read my email or log into the website before lunch time so I miss out completely. Personally, I don’t think this is fair. They should send these reservations out later giving people 12 usable hours. (The only reason I was able to get this opportunity to write about them was because I just so happened to be up tonight when the email came in, but that is a rare thing for me.)

Then once you get a reservation what do you do with it? The email does not tell you how to proceed. There are no instructions on how to get to the opportunity nor is there a clear indication once you log in on what to do. I had to search to find the opportunity then take a wild stab at what to do next. They don’t seem to want to make this easy on a person do they?

Just Tell Me Why This Site Is So Addictive

1 comment May 11th, 2008

I just found a fun site where you can post your point of view on many topics in a very unique way. Just Tell Me Why offers up dichotomies to be solved by the general public (that’s me and you). There are lots of hot topics to choose from entertainment to politics.

Stop by JustTellMeWhy.com today to voice your opinion on The Simpson vs Family Guy or Coke vs Pepsi. They’ll even listen to your ideas too so if you don’t see a topic you’d like to talk about on the site just drop them a note and request it.

Believe me once you get started telling people why you might not be able to stop. This site is very addicting.

Protect Yourself and The Ones You Love

Add comment May 8th, 2008

Being online all the time I am quite concerned about identity theft. Then I watch TV shows like Dateline and my fear level rises even further. Did you see that episode where they showed how quickly and easily thieves can get a hold of not just your credit card numbers, but your social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank accounts and more. I was terrified after watching that. I honestly have no idea what I would do if I found my ID was stolen.

Of course I would have to cancel all my credit cards, contact my bank, put out fraud alerts on all the credit bureaus, but what am I forgetting and how do I know I got everything?

Thank goodness there is a service like LifeLock. They’ll do it for you and they guarantee it. You insure your house, your car, your life why not insure you identity? For only ten bucks a month you can feel secure in all your transactions not just those online.

Your security and this post are brought to you by lifelock.

Let SocialSpark Spark Your Imagination

Add comment May 6th, 2008

I signed up for this new service called SocialSpark about a week ago. To some degree it is a cross between MySpace and PayPerPost. You get to meet up with merchants and other bloggers on a more personal level. Signing up is easy and free.

Just know you either have to be using FireFox or MSIE 7 (I hate internet explorer 7) or you won’t be able to access the site at all, which is a big draw back since about 50-60 percent of the folks coming to my sites are still using MSIE 6. I assume you folks are like me and don’t like the way the new internet explorer handles webpages and how Microsoft appears to be pushing us all into redeveloping our previously working websites. Enough about them, back to SocialSpark.

Head on over and sign up. You’ll be able to find opportunities to make money with your posts (like PPP and other services), make new blogging buddies, find ideas and topics for you to write about and one of the best features get and request blog backs. That last one is so important in improving your page ranks that it alone is worth signing up. But I am sure you will find other reasons to stick with them.

While your there stop by whataslacker’s SocialSpark profile and give me some props, request to be my friend or just let me know you posted a blog about my site and I’ll be sure to do the same. I am always looking to increase those links back to my blog.

You can thank SocialSpark for this post.

Roxiticus Best Blogs: A Blog About Blogs

Add comment May 4th, 2008

In the vast blogosphere it is easy to get lost. Sometimes you just need a helpful friend to point you in the right direction. Or at the very least help suggest some good places to start.

A really good jumping off place is Roxiticus Best Blogs. This is pretty much a blog about blogs and sometimes blogging too. RBB has some helpful tips on how to increase your blog traffic in the mix of reviews. Head on over there to see what I mean.

More Star Trek Handheld Games

Add comment March 26th, 2008

After coming across the Coleco Star Trek game on the Handheld Games Museum I decided to poke around and see what other Star Trek games they had listed and which ones I did not know about. Here is what I found…

1. Milton Bradley Microvison Star Trek Phaser Strike

2. Collins Wrath of Khan Video Game Watch

3. Konami Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game

4. Tiger Electronic Star Trek: The Next Generation LCD Game

And while not a Star Trek game in name the Bandai Pair Match game has been used as prop on TNG as seen in the screencaps below.

Guess I have some eBay shopping to do now.

Star Trek Handheld That Never Was

Add comment March 26th, 2008

I just stumbled onto a Star Trek Toy I had never heard of before. While this is not a very surprising statement to many people, I pride myself in knowing quite a bit about Star Trek collectibles. After all I have been collecting the stuff for nearly twenty years now.

I am far from an expert on these things more of an obsessed fan really. Check out StarTrekToysOnline.com if you need proof of just how crazy I am when it comes to Star Trek toys and collectibles.

Today’s find is a Coleco handheld Star Trek game based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. According to the Handheld Museum this toy was most likely never made. The really good ones often aren’t. Just look at the Palisades Roddenberry/Captain Kirk set which never went past the prototype stages.

There really are a lot of Star Trek things I still don’t know about out there [so feel free to post a comment to this and let me know of anything out there that you see that is unique].

Postcard Printing for You and Me

Add comment January 18th, 2008

Sometimes email just isn’t good enough and you need to resort to snail mail (also known as the United Postal Service). Believe it or not it is just more reliable sometimes. What am I talking about, you might ask. Well, I had some friends move and I never got their email. If they had followed it up with nice little postcards with their new address I would have had something to stick right in my address book, but they did not so I did not. So my Christmas card I sent to them came back to me making me a sad little Santa thinking I lost touch with a good friend. Lucky for me I have a back up friend who gave me the address. But if she had simply gone to VistaPrint.com and made some cool and funky postcards and sent them out this could have all been avoided.

But VistaPrint offers so much more than postcard printing. You can make business cards, magnets (both of which I have made for my website), notepads, invitations and loads more. They are great for not just business but also personal uses too. You could use their postcards for announcements, invitations, business marketing and so much more. The cost is very reasonable too. So my question is why didn’t my friend go there and print out some postcards with her new address?

Made possible by VistaPrint.com. They have free stuff there too.

Pay-Per-Play a New Way to Monetize Your Site

Add comment January 15th, 2008

When I first heard the term pay-per-play I thought it had to do with online videos or games. It doesn’t. It has everything to do with making money from your website.

If you are like me you are not making enough money off those Google ads you have all over your website are you? People just don’t seem to be clicking through on those any more, do they? What would you do if I told you that you could get paid for every visitor to your site and not just the few who actually click through and leave your site? Most people wouldn’t believe it. I didn’t until I checked out Net Audio Ads.

What’s that? Well, it is pretty much what it says it is audio ads on your website and you get paid every time one of them plays for one of your visitors. The ads are short, only five seconds long and each visitor only gets one ad so they don’t hate you while they are on your site. Five seconds is hardly enough time to annoy anyone. You see or should I say hear them all over the place these days so why shouldn’t you benefit from them too? Like those Google ads everyone is ignoring these days the pay-per-play ads are related to the content on your website by spidering your site. I see this as a great opportunity for publishers and advertisers a like.

By the fine folks who bring you Net Audio Ads.