As fun as a game! Isn’t that the way it should be for bloggers? Bloggers love to interact with one another and for the most part are very much community-minded people. Well, at least that’s my belief! You’re certainly welcome to disagree, but if you would like to participate in a way to do blog link exchange as fun as a game, then come on over and register at Link & Blog Challenge and join in on the fun!
Just a bit of info on some technology stuff I think is interesting. We as bloggers naturally rely on a good computer and have to be assured it will be reliable. It’s amazing how much GB of storage you can get on the newest computers compared to just a few years ago. Technology advances so quickly it’s easy to be out of touch with what’s going on.
I watch very little TV, but there have been times that I wanted to catch a program or two from my desk, but we don’t have a TV in this room. Recently I thought about looking into adding something to my computer to watch TV from my computer, rather than buying a separate television.
With that thought in mind, I just ran across a Sony location free base station. What is this new gadget? It enables you to use a broadband Internet connection to access your television from your notebook computer, PC or PSP. It requires a wireless access point; broadband Internet connection with uplink and downlink speeds of 300 Kbps.
Just thought that was interesting, plus you can save some money from Best Buy or other merchants by using a coupon, which can be found on Coupon Chief. If you’re in the market for a new computer the coupon is a combo offer for Sony LocationFree. With technology, there’s always something new to think about!
For starters, let me clarify what this article is NOT talking about. It’s not about dryer sheets, your kids super ball or how far silly putty might bounce. For those of you perhaps panicking over how much you spent this week it’s also not about bouncing checks. 
This article IS about what every web or blogmaster would want to understand, but perhaps would prefer to ignore — the bounce rate of your landing page.
There may come a time when you decide to utilize a pay per click program for advertising, which takes quite a bit of analysis in order to make it a successful endeavor, and to get the most value for your advertising investment.
Much of the analysis goes into determining which keywords will deliver the best for you, and without draining your advertising budget prematurely! There is a critical balance between those two elements, which involves tweaking the keywords and ad correctly, but that’s just the beginning.
If you have not utilized pay per click advertising perhaps the overwhelming thought of all the analysis it requires is what holds you back. If so, that’s where it may come in handy for you to consider a pay per click management team working on your behalf to ensure your pay per click program is tweaked to equate to the best value per click.
The opportunity to take advantage of pay per click management may prove to be very beneficial to you. Advertising choices can be very difficult, and setting up an advertising campaign improperly would not only equate to lost dollars, but a loss of time and momentum for your website or blog. As they say, time is money, and getting the keywords tweaked correctly can be the key to your advertising success.
You have probably heard the news that broke earlier this week. Forbes slammed PayPerPost and those of us who are posties! Their article was not only demeaning to the bloggers who post for PayPerPost, but in my mind is also an insult to intelligent consumers. While everyone is entitled to their opinions, here’s mine if anyone cares to hear. In the Forbes article written by David Gelles, he stated;
What so enrages the masses online is that the soft sell is often concealed, disguised as an independent product or service review.
Is it just me, or is that not an insult to the intelligence of a potential consumer? Are consumers so easily deceived to not recognize a post as being a potential advertisement? Or, when they click through from a link within a blog post and land on a commercial site do they not comprehend that they just clicked through a link due to an advertisement? Furthermore, many of the advertisers require that the posties place a disclosure within the post to demonstrate that it is indeed an advertisement, or at the very least display a link on our blog to our advertising disclosure policy. Although David Gelles mentioned this fact, it was placed at the end of his article as if the disclosure policies serve no purpose.
Going further into the Forbes article he also criticized Colleen, the top postie for PayPerPost where she published an ad for a credit counseling company. He stated she should have used their services prior to publishing an ad for them! His response to her post was this;
Trouble is, the blogger pushing the site had never even used the company but was getting paid to flack it.
OK, this is the one I really have a problem with. I’m not so naive nor is the rest of the world to actually believe that every advertising agency out there publishing ads has “used the company” product or service prior to generating their ad! That is absolutely obsurd!
Here’s how ridiculous that is: Let’s just say for example that the particular credit counseling company he referred to had selected a different form of advertisement such as an advertising campaign with a newspaper, magazine or other form of media. Does that entity now have their people “use the” credit counseling service before they can do an ad for the company? Hogwash! Like any other form of advertising, bloggers or posties have the right to express their opinion after reviewing a companies website demonstrating the product or service they provide.
In a nutshell, perhaps the big dogs such as Forbes are angry with the fact that as bloggers take on the task of publishing advertisements, the big dogs will lose the grip they’ve had for so many years with raking in the millions of dollars from advertising. My take on this is they see the blogosphere as a threat to their “business as usual” and fear they will lose millions themselves from the advertising revenues they normally would generate from ads.
In closing, I would say Forbes’ attack against PayPerPost and posties demonstrates their acknowledgment of the power and influence bloggers have over the world. In that the majority of us blogging are considered to be the little guy or gal, our efforts combined together as a whole resulting from our voices heard through keystrokes may actually be a threat to the big dogs in more ways than we imagine! In my opinion, that’s a good thing! 
What’s your take on Forbes slamming PayPerPost and those of us who are posties?
Consider for a moment all the time you spend on your computer and creating articles as well as other documents. Also consider the fact that if you have a digital camera and have photos of your family and friends you will certainly want to be sure they are well preserved for access in the future.
Now think of the worst cases scenario in regards to all that data and consider the fact that it could all be lost in a heartbeat if your computer’s hard drive had a serious crash. Sure, you could consider the possibility of data recovery if your hard drive crashed, but at a hefty price! The other problem is the fact that the data may not be recoverable.
More on Save Your Blogging Efforts
You may have read my prior posts about moving blogs from a free blogging platform such as Blogger to your own domain. Back in March I wrote a two part step-by-step guide to relocate blogs from a free platform onto their own domain. Part one and part two of that article may be of interest to you. As I mentioned in those two articles, I had plans to migrate my other two blogs from their free platform, but other projects have been too pressing.
More on Free Blogging and Making the Most of It
