What A Slacker!

The Scream Continues…

Add comment July 3rd, 2008

Today sucked.

This week sucked.

I suck.

My week started out horribly. It never had anything even close to a good point at any point. Then it ended just a horribly.

To be honest I have to wonder why I am still here on this planet.

Not feeling well I went in to drink some milk (hoping it would settle my stomach – it did not). As I was drinking it I noticed some of the magnetic poetry on the fridge.

Drink milk and dream.

Okay so I drank the milk all I need now are the dreams. Will they be nightmares? Most likely I will be trapped, attacked and killed repeatedly during the night. Why shouldn’t my dreams mimic my life?

I hope to be back to my regular bitchy self soon. Either that or just gone.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

More Ways To Make Money Blogging

Add comment June 5th, 2008

A new company has arrived on the scene that lets you make money from blogging. It is called Bloggerwave. Really easy to sign up and be approved. Once you are you will almost immediately be able to pick a topic to blog about and make money from the sponsor. It is based in Europe, but is available to bloggers around the world.

OMG They Should Be Called PainPerPost

Add comment May 29th, 2008

PayPerPost is a really good way to make a few extra bucks each day writing sponsored posts, but sometimes they can be a BIG pain in the butt. I recently wrote a really great post about something I feel passionately about and just because I link my post to the companies and products involved in the legal case PPP decided it was a sponsored post. Well guess what? It was not!

The post entitled The Litter Box Wars: LitterMaid vs SmartScoop is completely my content and not sponsored (although I would have liked a 500 word article to have been sponsored it was not). I completely adhered to their rules that “each PayPerPost post must be immediately preceded and immediately followed by at least one non-sponsored, original content post”. (Duh, did that!) Yet they won’t pay me for the sponsored post I did for them.

Maybe they need to take another look at the post. Or maybe we bloggers aren’t allowed to have an actual opinion unless they are dictating it to us? This lawsuit is against a company that I admire and I feel strongly about. So strong in fact, that I took it upon myself to utilize SocialSpark.com to help get the word out via a BlogUBack Spark on the site. Now I am left wondering if they will pull my blog Spark from that site? Are we not allowed to get people to help us fight the fight through their system? We’ll have to wait and see.

Oh and for the record this post was not endorsed by PPP in any way shape or form (just in case they try to pull this same crap on me for my next “job” with them.

Big Fat Stupid Heads

Add comment May 28th, 2008

I have been informed that my sponsored post will not be paid because the yutzes over at PPP think my little tirade about big corporations like those behind the Littermaid litter box trying to kill the little guy like the fine folks over at OurPet’s is a sponsored post.

I link to both parties so which one is doing the sponsoring? I have no affiliate links in the post so how am I being paid? Perhaps they need to open their eyes and look at the links in a post before saying that you don’t get paid for your hard work today because we see links in your posts. Did you read the post? Did you follow the links? I doubt it or you would have realized it is what it is, a valid original content, non-sponsored post. This little police action of theirs has actually tick me off.

If I had been sponsored I would have said “oh well they caught me” and just remove the unpaid post from my blog but this is war now. So now I stick this rant about them in between my sponsored post with them and my non-sponsored post that they cannot see is not a paid post.

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.

Caught in Captcha Hell

Add comment May 20th, 2008

I completely understand sights requesting captcha verification when submitting comments and feed back in online forms. Heck, I have even considered it for my commenting system on this blog due to all the mechanical spam messages I keep getting in my comments. But after tonights little mishap on another blog I whink I will reconsider.

I was over at This Side of the Fence tyring to post a comment on a fellow bloggers article. But the captcha which was all numerical kept giving me a failed response. I kept trying to get my comment to go through always with the same outcome. I finally gave up. But not before grabbing screen shot so you can see i did indeed have the right numbers in the form and how badly the website was treating. Hopefully, the comments were all rejected and not sitting in their admin awaiting moderation. If that is the case they will have to delete like twenty of the same comment form me. Sorry.

Send A Little Piece of Yourself

Add comment May 20th, 2008

Sending cards and letters is getting to be a lost art. Why not revive it by creating and sending personalized photo cards. You can use any image and create your own text on the inside too. Use pictures of your family, friends, pets anything that makes it your own.

I know, I know. You are thinking that sending photo cards is only for Christmas. Well guess what? It isn’t. You can send out them out any time. Use a photo from your wedding to create anniversary invitations, use a baby shot to announce your newborn’s arrival, take a picture of your kids and pets to use for everyday note cards, the possibilities are endless.

Are you looking for that perfect thank you note but can’t seem to find it? Why not make it yourself. Wedding season is coming up right? So here is a good idea for all those thank you notes you will need to be sending out. Get a picture of yourself at your shower or hen party or use your engagment photo then create your own unique message on the inside and outside of the card. All you need to do is add a little personal note before mailing out your unique, one of a kind wedding thank you notes. It might just be the only thank you note that your friends and family may actually keep or add to their scrapbooks.

Really the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

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?

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.