Archive for the ‘Sponsors’ Category

The Daily Do

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

A little while ago, Sean and I went out to do some shopping. We headed over to Dollar Tree to look for baskets because no one can beat $1. We then stopped in EBGames and I picked up a new game for the Wii and I bought him a docking system for his xbox360 controller. Turns out, it was the wrong one so we wound up taking it back and exchanging it. Either way he’s happy. A quick trip to AC Moore to look for other odds and ends, then wondering around Walmart for a little bit so I can look in the vitamins section and now we’re home.

I’ve been poking around the natural health stuff for a while now. I’ve been taking supplements with my diet that are working out pretty well for me. My energy levels are through the roof these days, which is more than likely the reason behind my accomplishing so much in the past few days. I’m right on track with all of my monthly goals, I’m at the 50% mark for my financial goals which works out great for me considering it’s literally the half way point of the month. I like when things balance out really well and I think the MSM Supreme is doing the trick. It’s a dietary supplement but I’ve been using it for pain management considering how bad my back has been these days. It’s working out really well for me so I’m not complaining, and I’m also not spending a butt-load of money on pain killers that my addictive personality would pounce on. Another one I’m taking is Lithium Orotate, it helps my frequent migraines but based on research it also helps those with depression and bi-polar disorders. Asprin wasn’t helping me anymore, not even Aleve and I was popping at least 6 of those a day just to concentrate.

Anyhoo, I’m about a half hour behind on some work that needs to be completed by midnight. I need to get my booty in gear on that.

Commercials and what not.

Friday, August 10th, 2007

I don’t spend a lot of time watching television but when I do get around to it you’re typically drawn to commercials considering the TV shows themselves aren’t always that great. In most commercials there are celebrities doing the voice overs so when you hear someone that’s voice isn’t very well known you kind of wonder how/why they were the ones chosen for the role.

I know that there are try-outs for just about everything. I don’t personally consider someone walking around in the background on some TV show to be an actor but that’s because I figure an actor is supposed to act, not just wonder around aimlessly – you know? I don’t really consider those doing the voice overs to be actors either, there are plenty of people that I personally know and can name off the top of my head with unique enough voices to make a commercial either very amusing or even very serious. I didn’t think that there were people who actually ran voice over talent agencies on top of that.

Kind of makes me wonder if I should call up Katie and tell her to get involved. She has a very nasal Fran Drescher kind of a voice and the second you hear her speak, even if you aren’t facing her, you instantly know it’s her and some of the stuff that comes out of her mouth is just too amusing for words.

I looked into this a bit further though and was brought to dancapone.com, they’re a talent agency I assume. I listened to a few of the demos and it’s radio quality stuff but at least it’s professional. I’ve listened to some of the local radio stations (online and off) and they all suck with their ‘commercials’ they should call up this guy and get a real voice over artist to do the work for them. I think my favorite voice over guy is the one who does the movie introductions but there’s actually a comedian that sounds just like him that’s always fascinated me, I’m unsure of what his name is though. I’m sure I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

Lounging around…

Friday, August 10th, 2007

It’s Friday night and while most people are heading out, I’m doing everything I can to just stay in. Sean is already asleep but he has to be up at like 3:30am or something like that. There’s some server things going on with his job that he needs to be awake for. I think it’s converting thumbnails or something like that, I don’t know. He told me but again – I’ve been out of it so it hasn’t really stuck for me. I think he found a way to get Image Magik to work with converting .GIF thumbnails without making them a static/still image. So I assume he has to take care of the rest of the thumbnails his boss has uploaded. Who knows.

I plan on getting to bed soon but for now I’m just kind of surfing around the web. I came across a site that gives you the ability to receive either an SMS or email alert about freebies being given away in your area. I thought it was pretty interesting. They’re called FreeAlert and it’s not just US based, it’s supposedly worldwide. I don’t have text messaging for my phone, I find it to be a completely useless feature. It’s cheaper to have a two minute conversation than it is to send the 20+IM’s to get your thoughts out – you know? I considered signing up for the email portion of it but have to look into it a little bit further.

The site itself is charity based, the items you receive can be redistributed to the disabled, orphans, widows, refugees or other needy people in your community. Around here there aren’t many needy people so I doubt I could be of much help to anyone but I’m sure those living in larger cities can find some kind of value through FreeAlert, who knows.

Dyslexia

Friday, August 10th, 2007

I’ve been side-tracked with work helping Kayla find some tutoring for her daughter Megan. She’s been having some trouble in English and figured before school started she’d get her enrolled in an online course, or even just a local tutoring service in general.

She’s a sweet kid, about 9 years old and has what we believe to be dyslexia. The problem is a lack of insurance is keeping Kayla away from getting her tested for it. It’s not that her daughter isn’t healthy, there is a clinic in-town that’s been more than gracious with helping her out but when you’re 27 with a 9 year old, it’s just hard to give them everything they’ve ever really needed. It’s just unfortunate that I can’t help her out with the tutoring at the moment, if I had the money to send over to her I would but lord knows what a specialist would charge for this kind of a test.

I did some reading though, Google is pretty easy to use for situations like these. It’s not hard to help someone with dyslexia and one of the big things to do is get them involved with a tutor that can help their needs. I don’t really think there’s any medication involved, it’s not really a physical disease it’s obviously brain based. When I first heard about what it was, I seriously thought that someone’s eyes were just backwards or something but that was me being a dumb 10 year-old at the time as well. Knowing that she really just needs a reading comprehension tutor in a structured environment, that her school doesn’t seem to have for her, would more than likely be a good thing.

Do you know anyone with dyslexia? Were you dyslexic? What route did you take?

Website Overview: ProfileBuilder.com

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Important Note: When being asked to review a website, paid or not, I treat it as though I’ve just come across the site on Google and then give my opinion from there. Price tags do not, by any means, sway my opinion on a sponsored entry. This is something I would like for the sponsor to keep in mind. Through me, you will receive my 100% honest opinion on your product and I remind you that this is what you’ve asked for.

(more…)

Website Overview: Car Angel

Monday, August 6th, 2007

I like coming across new and interesting things, tonight I just happened to have found a charity that accepts Car Donations.

(more…)

Review: Dev3 Web Services

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Important Note: When being asked to review a website, paid or not, I treat it as though I’ve just come across the site on Google and then give my opinion from there. Price tags do not, by any means, sway my opinion on a sponsored entry. This is something I would like for the sponsor to keep in mind. Through me, you will receive my 100% honest opinion on your product and I remind you that this is what you’ve asked for.

(more…)

Vendstar

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

Now that I’m no longer living there, whenever I come across something that’s based out of New York I tend to zoom in on it and pay close attention. I did this before I moved down to Delaware too, oddly enough.

(more…)

Massive resources on even the cheapest plans.

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

PPPSo I came across something of interest today that I thought I’d share. May seem like a conflict of interest but when you’re pushing another company completely – isn’t that just being nice?

(more…)

Where are all the jobs?

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Karen is in the process of looking for a new job. The company she currently works with is absolutely horrible because it’s being run by someone who saw a price tag and not the actual business behind it. They’re lucky if bills are paid on time and it’s been noted on more than one occasion that they’re just sneaking by on getting the payroll taken care of. So naturally she’s tapped into every possible site on the internet looking for work. Monster, CareerBuilder and even CraigsList haven’t really brought up anything for her. I pushed her in the direction of looking for corporate finance jobs because that’s probably going to be the best thing for her. She’s digging through their site at the moment, I just hope she’s able to come up with something.

It’s FinancialConsultantRecruiters.com, they’re a executive search firm that has finance jobs and their professional recruiters/consultants have executive and entry level jobs in the corporate finance field available now. I just hope she’s able to come up with something because she’s had no luck looking anywhere else.

:: crosses fingers ::

Slow your roll

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

I’m having some trouble with WordPress today and I’m not quite sure why. I keep getting a 500 error every time I go to login and get some things done. It only shows up at random, I’ve got Tony working on it at the moment. Didn’t mean to interrupt his lunch but hey – I’m paying him so hmph! Yes, childish I know.

I’ve noticed a rise in people having a complaint about the new way of doing things with a paid blogging company I work with. Instead of 3 posts per day, per blog in the database, there’s now only 2 posts per day and those new to the system feel as though they’re being raped out of money. Thing is, the intent for this company was never for these people to fully switch their sites over to a money making machine and any true paid-blogger knows that putting all of your eggs in one basket is just plain dumb. Many bloggers earning the $2000 a month and up income aren’t only working with one paid to blog company, they’re working with about 10 of them – trust me, I’m one of them.

However, this doesn’t mean that the only reason I have a blog is for the sake of making money off of it. I work from home, yes, but more than 70% of my income is WORK based, I do run my own company you know? I’m not sitting at a website at 9am to midnight hoping to get an opportunity as it’s posted and then participate in the op orgy to post articles completely irrelevant to my website. Everyone wants to go for that $20 and up post, even if it has nothing to do with their daily lives. I’m sorry but a 18 year old blogger knows nothing about refinancing student loans for college graduates so why are they going to take it? They want a fat wallet.

Yes, everyone wants a fat wallet. This is why people work their asses off on a regular basis. The difference is, when you’re sitting on your ass just crossing your finger for one of these ops to show up, you’re really not doing much of anything. Many blogs around the internet are losing their readership because of sponsored blogging. I’ll be the first to admit that I use my site for monetary gain but I’m also still keeping up on my daily life here as well. Posting sponsored entry after sponsored entry is something being done all over the internet and many people have noticed that they’re no longer getting the hits that they once used to.

Some have smartened up, they’re no longer paid posting on 10 different blogs and found an actual income from outside sources. You’ll still see entries popping up here and there but for the most part they’ve gotten themselves on an actual payroll that isn’t based post-to-post.

I completely support anyone who writes sponsored posts. I just won’t be floating around those blogs as frequently because the bulk of them all have the same entry just written a different way and I’m sorry but if your site has absolutely NOTHING to do with the entries you’re posting, it’s really nothing more than a waste of time. A fat wallet is great but no readership won’t keep that wallet very fat for long. You can easily be taken from a PR6 to a PR4 with the loss of back links due to paid blogging, no more high paying ops for you, no more fat wallet, and no more actual visitors. Something to keep in mind the next time you log into your paid blogging system. Pace yourself with other companies outside of a fast-paced-blog-orgy and really think about what you’re writing about, if it doesn’t connect to your website, even if it’s a quick $30 – it’s really not worth the write up.

Old friends doing really well!

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

My friend Pat is in a band that’s been traveling basically everywhere. They started off as local hotness and has now skyrocketed to a large success, especially among college campuses. They were once Hyjinx but now known as Stealing Jane. I asked him about coming down to Dewey because it’s a massive college town and he said that there’s some big band thing going on in September that they’re waiting to hear back on – YAY!.

Either way their music rules and based on the last I heard they were doing really well on merchandise sales too, shirts are flying off the rack it seems. Their EP is about to drop so they’ve been looking into expanding their merchandise to include baseball caps, mouse pads, pens, stickers, bags and other fun stuff. So this is where my actual point comes in.

When it comes to band based merchandise, owning a shirt just won’t cut it sometimes. What would you like to see with a band name on it? They want something unique, I’m sure. They used to do thongs but those went too quickly and strangely lonely boys were the only ones actually buying them – lol.

VoIP Phone Systems for Businesses

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

If you run a small business and have shown an interest in VoIP phone systems, than this entry is for you. Today I came across a website for Xpander Communications which is a company that specializes in hosted PBX small business VoIP phone systems. This system is for companies looking to improve and explore new technologies. With the rise in broadband for business, naturally working with your old phone setup is going to seem kind of pointless. VoIP is proving, time and time again, to be a pretty decent service to use. Xpander offers the most user friendly phone systems available thanks to it’s focus on simplicity, reduced costs and drastically reduced maintenance. Small businesses with office branches scattered across the country can share the same phone system on the same private list of extensions. So say you have an office in California and you’re looking to get in touch with someone in your Denver Colorado branch, you just dial their four digit extension and you’re instantly connected. I think it’s a pretty interesting route to take.

I know that my server master, Tony, works at two different datacenters. They have the same kind of VoIP setup so he’s able to contact his boss easily at the main branch while he’s at the sub branch a few towns over with just a few clicks of a button. Sure you can easily keep someone’s number in your phone book but going through this system stops you from having to pick up your cellphone and spend money where it doesn’t really need to be spent.

I think it’s worth checking out, honestly.

Keeping in touch.

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

With running as many sites as I do, I make it a point to have Mailing Lists setup so it’s easier for me to get in touch with a large number of people with out having to keep a huge address book on Thunderbird. I have quite a few contacts that I’ve built up over the years, I don’t use them for regular mailings, but when something big is going on with say AGn Listings, for example, it’s good to know that I have that database to get in touch with the members.

There are many resources out there for running your own mailing-list. It’s important to know what kind of resources you’re going to need in relation to them as well. Don’t figure that the moment you launch your site that you’re going to have over 30,000 members on your mailing list and then purchase some $600 script to manage them all. When you first start out I’ve found that self-hosted scripts are pretty reasonable, and 99% of the time they’re free OR can just be found through your cPanel installation.

Naturally someone running a large business wouldn’t take this route and they’d look into outside companies like ResponseCom‚Ñ¢ to handle these things for them. Marin Worldwide is one of the largest and most successful mailing list providers in the nation which offer you customized mailing lists, Telemarketing lists and fax lists to both small businesses and fortune 1000 clients. If you’re looking for something on this scale then checking out martainworldwide.net would be a good thing for you.

Pick a holiday already, will you?

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

It’s kind of weird that I went from talking about Christmas to Halloween but I just came across a really cool site that’s in full dedication to Halloween. They’ve got everything from Halloween costumes to decorations. I found a “Dog, The Bounty Hunter” costume and almost fell out of my chair laughing because it’s one of the same outfits that you’d see Beth wearing. It’s even got the big puffy curly white hair to go with it, I thought it was pretty cool haha. They kind of remind me of a Party City kind of store. I know they’re primarily just for Halloween based items, and that’s fine. The store I’m used to going to has nothing but Halloween decor but things are changed out seasonally for Christmas. All in all they seem like a fairly interesting resource.

Moving back to NY?

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

Anyone who’s ever lived in New York knows how expensive it can be just to survive. If you’re someone who rents then you more than likely won’t get very far ahead on your bills and if you’re someone who owns their own home, unless it was passed down to you through generations you’re still going to drop a pretty penny on a regular basis.

I grew up in Glen Cove, while I’ll admit that getting out of there was the best possible thing for me, there are sections of the town that are absolutely gorgeous. Naturally, in order to live there you’re going to need to bring in at least $300,000 a year in the process.

Today I came across a resource in regards to Roslyn NY real estate. While I haven’t ever lived in Roslyn it’s only about 10 minutes away from my previous residence in Glen Cove. There are sections that are completely horrible, but for the most part it’s fairly gorgeous housing as well. Again, there are ritzy areas of Long Island and then there are what one would expect to see when they go to New York – slums.

So since Sean and I are working on buying our own home, I’ve naturally looked into where I’d feel the most comfortable. Unfortunately we don’t make enough combined income to be able to afford a mortgage up in New York therefor we’re going to remain outside of the Tri-State Area and either continue on our search here in Delaware, possibly move to Maryland or head out to Ohio, something I’m not too keen on but he’s persistent in trying to convince me to get out there.