Today I just got a request to join a group "make money with person x".

So gamers are typically guys, so the stereotype goes, but it looks like nearly 2 out of every 3 online gamers are girls. This bodes well for geeks worldwide!

So if the MySpace pornbot girls are getting old why not take to playing video games? I still don't play many online games because I already spend too much time on the web, but I recently have started playing Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution, and Guitar Hero.

Many flat screen monitors are designed to work with certain width and height settings, and if your monitor has a different setting it may end up showing some random green junk on it.

Useful tech help ideas:

• reset the router (sometimes that helps if there is some glitch in the program sequence or whatever)
  
• if you are using a splitter disconnect the splitter and test it directly
  
• disconnect all your other phone lines if they share the same phone number
  
• try changing your phone cable to the router or dsl cable from the router
  
• sometimes visiting the URL 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 helps the computer re-recognize the router (sorry I am not techy so that is not in techy terms hehehe)
  
• do a line speed test
  
• last resort: call the Verizon DSL customer support phone number 1(800)567-6789

So I believe I have an intermittent short in my internet connection.

All indications are the exact same as when I had one about a yr ago. Back then it took about a month or so to get someone to come to my house.

I call Verizon tech support and the guy in tech support tells me he can't support me. That he can't send someone to my house. I need to call billing, which - surely it is no accident - is closed 2/3 of the day.

I explained to the guy that he was hired by a scumbag corporation and that their rule sets were garbage at best. How is it possible that Verizon tech support can't actually provide tech support?

Every congressman that voted against net neutrality is a corporate whore scumbag.

A few more articles about the big V sucking big D with their customer support services

Verizon Customer Service is a joke

She couldn't help me. She was only Technical Support. However, let me transfer you to our Billing and Sales Department.

I get transferred and hear this: 'Thank you for calling Verizon Online. Our department is closed. Please call back during business hours...click.'

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??! They didn't even tell me when the business hours were!

Verizon Customer Service (Telesales) Sucks!!!!!

CNet: Verizon's customer service: your problem is...them

Beware of Verizon customer service & contracts

Not really intended to be much of a forum thread, but one blog page I created has became an emotional roller coaster.

Check out this comment and this lovely reply.

Yesterday someone pulled up in a cheesy pink Escalade...they used it to help market their website, which was something like pinkxyz.net.

I said "dot net...should have got a dot com" and people around me started laughing.

no doubt lame, but so I say I got to be me.

what tagline would I use?

"Late to the game...
but more spam / blog guaranteed"

droves of mediocer content...legitimized only by scale

its not just lunchmeat anymore

Is the WWW :)

Yet another friend...John J Kirker, blogger.

Surely there are huge sums of money to be made profiting from an addiction attached to money with no physical product that is available. Via Alan Meckler I read a NYT article about how big institutional investors are betting on online gaming, in spite of it being illegal in the US.

A large part of the reason online gaming is illegal is that tradional casinos (big money) do not want additional competition, but the institutional investers (big money) will probably hedge off any legal action.

Illustrate My Name offers pretty neato looking unique baby name gifts. Totally unique idea perfect for the web.

Payday Loan News:

13% of americans are ignorant assholes getting fucked by system

click this payday loan ad get your loan

what makes that any more honest or less spammy than other techniques?

spam: Hello Aaron

aaron: hi

spam: Is it the right time to talk?

aaron: it depends on the conversation
for example
if you want to make a sales pitch it is the wrong time
however if you want to chat about somerthing interesting it is not

spam: ok so when is the right time
?

aaron: it is never the right time to make a sales pitch
have to go
cheers

How often would you ever get communication from a stranger like this:

Arron: By chance, my last name is Wall, also. I have had problems with depression since 1988. Beginning in 2003, my problems became increasingly more problematic and my doctor put me on a high dosage of Prozac once again. I tried Effector and other meds all to no avail. He also had me on 3 mg of Xanax daily. Finally, I went to a Psychiatrist who told me I had "Prozac poop out", withdrew me and put me on Lamictal. She also diagnosed me with Bipolar I.

I do not totally agree with her diagnosis. I may have a rare, very rare episode of "mania" that would not last more than several hours. I cannot tell if this is just my natural nature of getting excited over things (good things) or what. I am a naturally fast talking Texan and that is one of the hallmarks of my personality which people seem to love. Nobody would ever guess me to be a person with depression. I wear the mask very well.

I have currently taken myself off of all med's. and left my home town of Palm Springs to come to La Jolla, spend four months here losing weight, reintering the world, walking/running on the beach, etc. The Xanax was a bitch to get past; I had been on it for years for panic/anxiety which I no longer seem to have. I am now on the other side of the Xanax withdrawal and somehow feel this medication contributed to the depression. I want to totally redefine the last one-third of my life and I am ready to start. My assumption is that my condition is chronic and I will have to deal with it. The irony of this mess is that the one thing I love is interaction with people. It is the anecdote to my problem yet my problem causes me to isolate. I cannot force myself out the front door. I am not unhappy, I am not happy, I am not sad, I am not despondent, etc. I just am NOT. However, I am tired of watching CNN, etc. for 8 hours a day, having no interest in reading, etc. I should be happy to look out of the window and see the beautiful Pacific Ocean of which I have an unobstructed view but rarely even notice it. This is just not normal. I should be down at the beach, etc. I am sober in AA since 1974 when I was 31 years old. NEVER in my history of depression have I ever considered drinking. This would definitely be a death sentence for me. I need to go back to AA meetings but find them of no real interest. This is just my shit and has nothing to do with the meetings. I know I am rambling but I have never written about myself before and this is like writing about some stranger who has inhabited my body. I would like to have Howard back; he's a pretty good guy to himself, his family and friends.

I am a well educated, 61 years old single white male. Depression has stripped me of almost everything that was part of a wonderful and successful life. I have never thought of self destruction (death) but always feel that there is a new life ahead. I gained over 30 pounds last year and now without the med's I have lost the weight, resumed exercising, etc. However, I have not been able to break the behavioral patterns I developed to cope with depression, ie., isolation, etc. Also without med's, the sexual dysfunction is still here. This sucks.

I do not know what you are looking for on your blog. I was actually looking for an interactive or message board for men in a similar situation. I am NOT a needy or self pitying person. I am a regular guy who loves life and loves people but happens to have this problem. I am certain that there is nothing unique about me. For the first time in the two months since I quit my med's I am having problems (depression not mania) again. I just roll with the punches and stay inside most of the time. This is the part I hate. I am ready to move on with my life but I cannot imagine going back on med's. They are all toxic to me. On med's, I cannot sleep for over three hours. Now, I sleep like a baby...albiet a baby with depression.

I'm not going to edit this or I will change my mind and not send it.

Your thoughts?

Thanks for your reply; I don't recall exactly what I wrote you about given the time since writing. Depression, on any level is a a bitch. The good news is that you can fight back and have a large measure of success. My life took a dramatic turn for the better when I found the right psychiatric help. My Psychiatrist, Dr. Theresa Darling is a young, brilliant doctor, a graduate of Stanford (doesn't get much better) and my partner in battling this mental challenge.

I am including by word attachment a short story I wrote. It is easier to "talk" to my computer than to others at times. I am humbled by an offer to consider this for publication by Harvard. This rough draft you are receiving was a spur of the moment lark I wrote upon awakening one morning.

Since writing this, my life has taken an incredible turn for the better. I have lost all of the weight gained in the last serious bout and work, on a professional level has come out of the woodwork and I see a future does indeed exist.

I have been OFF of all med's for over 6 months and have developed my own coping skills. For me, the med's were worse than the illness. I had been on med's for too many years without success. If I learned one thing I want to impart to others is that depression medications should only be prescribed by a Psychiatrist not a general practitioner. My GP is also a good friend but I let him get out of his realm of expertise. I should have stopped this years ago.

The drinking: I had a serious drinking problem in my 20's and went into AA when I was 31 and have never had a drink since then: 31 years. I am a mystery to all of my medical professionals who always worried the depression would render me weak and I would return to drinking. I never considered it for a moment in the same way I never considered suicide. Neither were ever an option.

I have been self employed all of my life, have been sued countless times, have made and lost millions of dollars, etc. All of this is just life. Depression was the one challenge that I could not mount a successful plan of attack until I fully understood it, got off med's, got the right medical professional, etc.

I don't know if any of this helps but this other Mr. Wall is alive and well in California and has a great life, today. I am hopeful that you are conquering your demons as well.

So how would you like to throw your product on Amazon after reading something like this:

It doesn't even merit a star
I can't for the life of me understand why people listen to this band. No talent whatsoever. Avoid this.

So my friend just fired one of his workers and hired a new one. His new worker reads my other blog. Probably going to be a good worker :)

Another one of my friends just looked for a place to live because he was recently employed by another one of my friends. Their connection? My other blog.

I met a guy at lunch at my last search engine conference who later bought my book. Part of my ebook talks about how bad a gas station is. He emailed me to say he couldn't believe it took him so long to buy my ebook, but that he thought that EXACT SAME gas station is crap.

After a couple more email exchanges it turns out that he used to work at a pizza joint that was literally 4 houses down from mine. I lived on a road that had like 3 businesses and 4 houses and there was nothing else for like a quarter mile in any direction. Weird & cool. :)

Many people think the grass is always greener on the other side. That it only sucks here. Then they go elsewhere. And it sucks there too.

I find myself wanting to travel a bunch. It sucks here. Or maybe not.

The reality of it is that I have made a few friends in London, New Zeland, Australia, Hawaii, Spain, California, NYC, Ohio, etc etc etc

On the web geography does not constrain who you meet or what you can do.

Longterm for many people to do well they still have to interact and extend beyond their topical communities. Imagine being one of the few marketers who was also friends with 10 of the top web designers in the world. I still need to be a hell of a lot more social than I am, but at least I see it as a fault I need to fix.

Hopefully I will not tell myself lies to keep myself constrained by geography.

So corporate coruption is nothing new, but the fact of investing is that most investments / companies / ideas are failures. Like humans companies have life spans and 20 years after AT&T split up they were bought by one of their spin offs.

If most investments fall below the average then how is making a social security program which has people play the market safer or better than what exists now?

Right now it seems as though the web is -at least to me- as important to the economy as railroads and automobiles were.

As large as the original visions of the web were they were likely only a fraction of what will come. They of course were out of reason as exuberence caused people to buy things that would never have a chance at success. The idealisms of the channels actually stifeled the ideas that were needed to make the network work to its full potential.

The one thing that makes the web so powerful is the hidden demand within each of our minds. We can search and then find a little info and then find more about our interests and then go after them.

Of course with that implied demand there is also a ton of ad demand.

Back in 99 - when I knew absolutely nothing about the web and was completely naive to the world around me- I still understood that the ability to target that demand was going to make advertising huge. The problem was that I did not appreciate just how crap most of the targeting mechanisms were. They were suckers investments. DCLK was a standard must own web marketing stock. Today they are worth less than a billion.

While I was pretty damn poor I found ways to live absurdely meager to buy a bunch of stocks that all went to shit. The exuberence at the time meant that people created arbitrary metrics to justify taking the average person for a ride.

Amazon provides a great service. I buy there frequently. Still need to read about 100 books I have bought.

Today I just installed Quickbooks on a new computer. I told my friend about getting the new computer and Quickbooks and he told me their manual was shit and that I should buy a book. I checked my email and Amazon recommended one.

Despite the fact that they were creating an amazing brand and they have powerful recommendation engines they still have not created a ton of value. To date they have lost about 3 billion dollars and are only worth about 15.

While recommending related products and great customer service are great, the best item to sell is no item at all. Google came years later is worth far more. In the first 11 months of 2004 I think Google spent about $2.5 on marketing. In the last quarter they had about a billion dollars in ad sales and are stupid profitable.

Just today DoubleClick put out another marketing report, but this one about the effects of search engines.

Right now there are only 4 companies that control most of those railways though, and obviously DoubleClick is not one of them.

• The smallest of the players (ask jeeves) is making acquisitions and now has even decided to run ads on television
  
• MSN just joined the market and is going to be spending 9 figures advertising the new service
  
• Google seems to be rolling out technologies that prevent websites for even ranking for their own names. obviously that brews bad karma and a bad user experience. There also is heavy insider selling.
  
• Yahoo! seems to be more in tune with the subscription business model (like RSS)

I wonder which ones are suckers bets and which ones will pan out, or if due to concepts like sell side advertising they may all become outdated fools gold.

Penalties of Stealing vs. Infringing

What is the value in an online education? I see college being useful and valuable based on the social connections that emerge and the atmosphere. You don't really get that from an online education, do you?

My roommate is going to college right now. Despite the fact that he "wants" to be an electrical engineer he is taking a bunch of english classes. I have it in my mind that he will do much more with literature and writing than with mathematics and engineering based stuff. He had a bit of a crush on his first English teacher and she got him into a course he normally would not have been able to attend as a freshman through her recommendation.

Now I am convinced that the social network that the web is...that is a really powerful thing. I am not convinced that one needs the structure of a course to learn though. Simply open yourself up to market forces and out of the need to survive and desire to succeed you will probably lead yourself toward water.

Within my first two years of site creation / promotion / extensive online interaction necessity led me to search engine marketing and even allowed me to have a one on one chat with employees and managers of some of the largest search engines int the world.

The more you learn about the web and its underlying technologies the more you realize that any field usually only has a few exceptionally powerful forces or sources in it. Its sometimes nearly impossible to directly access some of them right out of the gate, but as you learn more and more about a subject you can lead yourself toward water.

The real tricks are:

• figure out something that you are really interested in
  
• participate in communities related to those fields
  
• read books and tons of web pages about your topic
  
• as you learn, share.
  
• don't be afraid to be wrong.
  
• and learn to become a good judge of motive

Lots of internet marketing plays upon greed. In a sense there is a huge field of affiliate marketers who do nothing but write bunk testimonial letters and try to get thousands of subscribers to their newsletters to buy the shit they make money off of.

One of my recent customers just sent me a few emails. The first one covers that typical an ebook which is chuck full of affiliate links that really tries to sell that affiliate marketing pryamid scheme stuff.

I just finished reading XXXX. Very
interesting - seems like effective marketing is
basically learning how to fool or lie to people best
-lol.

Useful though in terms of knowing what works.

Hi Aaron. Thanks so much for all your help! Your SEO book is fantastic. Very informative and super honest! Thank you also for all the personal help you gave me via email. You are extremely patient.

You have inspired me to go in the direction of honesty, something I have thought about, but wasnt sure if I could do.

Thank you for being such a great role model.
Sincerely,
Tom

• when SearchGuild invited me to be a moderator there
  
• when I read Andrew Goodman's ebook and it referenced a guy by the name of Seth Godin

Most everything on the web comes down to creativity and citation analys. If you do not give into emotions such as greed your instincts will probably lead you down the right path. Good people and good sites usually tend to reference good people and good sites....that is what makes them good.

As I write this I am chatting back and forth with the guy who created one of the better blogging software systems out there. He also runs the forums for Knoppix.

Its not easy right out of the gate for most people to do well online, but after you get to do something you like and eventually become a self sustaining business the logarithmic growth can really make the economics shift in your way really friggen fast.

When you are already doing exactly what you want to and money is of no concern for your day to day living you can focus a bit more on life :)

What Defines what a Legitimate Business Expense is?
A friend and I went to London. We got a deal on the plane tickets, but the normal price for them would have been around $10,000 each. In some countries that plane ticket price would exceeds the output of the average worker for A WHOLE DECADE. People can spend that much and call it a legitimate business expense. Why?

The Fair Business World
Much of the business world is set up to make it easy for successful people to stay successful and make it harder for unsuccessful people to crawl out of their socioeconomic holes.

Bad Business Expenses...Wasting Years of My Life in the Fucked up Navy
Less than two years ago I was kicked out of the navy for using drugs. In fact I had to sign up for a credit card as I was getting kicked out to fund my living. I had no knowledge of marketing, web design, or anything really at this point.

I refused to draw unemployment when I was doing bad and am doing well now.

On the Web: Where You Can do Anything
Next year I could probably make about $250,000 in profits...without really even becoming a horrible selling out. The feedback loops on the web are that powerful.

What makes some thing a legitimate business expense?
I met an internet startup executive in a club a few years ago who talked about his bogus personal website where he claimed tons of loses...and it makes one wonder what makes something a legitimate business expense?

I could creat foodreviewguidebyaaron.com and clothingreviewguidebyaaron.com and centralpennsylvanialivingbyaaron.com and write off virtually everything I do. ... I am not going to do this, but my friend wants to create a travel directory and he could get paid to travel all the time...and be legit.

I believe a large portion of the fear and other gross fucking bullshit some of our leaders are doing is simply an attempt to stop people from realizing how much opportunity the web has created.

The cool thing about cheap publishing is that anybody can do it. And they can do it outside of the financial loop.

Blogger offers 100% free sofware, hosting, etc.

Our media and our society are set up where profit has to be included in the "business model" of news.

If you can create a community eventually you will profit from it. One way or another... if you do what you are interested in and work hard you will make a name for yourself.

Less than 2 years ago I was completely ignorant about ALL aspects of the web. Still got a ton to learn, but I have be referenced at places like Internet News & The Toronto Star. I also punted an interview for Salon.com...should have asked more about what they wanted before going into the interview.

Anyway this is becoming a tangent rant, but the point is free information that is made out of interest is usually going to be better than that made exclusively for profit. That is the point of The Real Threat of Blogs

grisley alcoholics...
a bear drinks all the bear

the web, again?
Web 2.0

and what will come of it???
Extreme Democracy? Maybe...

I spend probably 2 - 3 hours (probably more like 5-6) every day helping people absolutely free. I work for probably less than 10% of what I could be making because I work really hard to try to improve humanity and help other people.

I also wrote an ebook which is primarily aimed at helping people. I sell it for $40 when books not half as good as mine go for $97.

I want to keep the price low so most people can afford it, but by keeping it low it also means I have more sales and more customer service to deal with. I normally like to help people but occassionally you come across a really stupid customer that kinda deflates you.

first you are really discouraged at yourself as if you did something wrong, but then at the end of the day you are really discouraged at evolution. how can people read about my ebook and then send me feedback like the following???

My visa was charged 39.99 for what is pictured in the screenshot below. I received what is contained in this attachment. If I do not receive a full refund within the next 48hrs I will forward this to the FTC, The Justice department, The FBI and to my bank to begin chargeback proceedings for the fraud you are committing.

is it fairly safe to say that the person who sent me that email is going to be a failure on the web, and desevibly so for being irrational and judgmental, and not researching, etc.

I mean in my sales copy I even state that my ebook is an ebook and how that adds value.

since they wanted a physical book (vice an ebook) I recommended they try search engine optimization for dummies. its an ok book and I might have even recommended that to them normally.

combine ignorant assholes like the one listed above with the people who buy your ebook off you (after they bought it at half price through their own affiliate link) and then send you multiple 3 page scrolling emails they wany you to answer and I can see why it may be worth it for me to just stop what I am doing and make my own content site that sells a ton of ad space.

I can't make other people not be greedy, selfish, ignorant, judgmental, or dirtbags, it is just sad that for as little as I actually physically see people mentally I still see so many people who are.

on a side note that makes me happy: I saw the dumb person who left me that feedback had spyware on their computer (I know this because they sent me a snapshot of their browser when they sent me that crap email).

The web is new and fragmented enough that my knowledge can make my opinion of just about any subject in the world be found by many eyes. That may sound arrogent, but that is not the goal of the statement. In my statement simply I am saying that search engines are not extremely sophisticated and my job is to manipulate their search results.

The words I write to express my opinions can be completely out to lunch. I can be completely full of shit (just like big media companies often are) and get my perspective broadly distributed. Really there is not much value in that other than the feedback you can get from other people.

That is where the real value in the web is. Free realtime feedback on anything you are interested in.

I am not sure that what I am currently doing is what I am interested in, but it sure is better than the navy...

What sparked this thread? today I traded my a copy of my ebook for dietary suppliments from people who are creating candy to improve neurochemistry.

it costs me nothing to give away my ebook and makes for a great bargaining chip.

everybody who likes to read and write should write at least one book or ebook

here is how

oh yea, make a table of contents sometime too...

the rest of this post has been edited so that my mother does not see it

I met some really stupid people yesterday.
For example:

• Why doesn't our site rank good. Normally I offer a few suggestions and really try to help people. These people had no way to really order their product. It was unproven. It was expensive. They had no tesimonials. Their site looked like they pulled it out of their ass. I was nice and I explained a few things to them, but they wanted more. They stated my "free" review was inadequate. They forced me to be not nice and tell them how crapy their site really is.
  
• Search engine marketing does not work. I met this guy yesterday too. He does interactive marketing and believes that search engine marketing and his limited understanding of search is more than adequate to say that search engines do not work. Somewhat interested in raising his own rankings with no investment, but doubts that search engine marketing really works. Believes that at 20% open rate and a 3-4% clickthrough rate from high end op in email lists predefines user interest more than them actively enaged searching for real information. Also does not believe people from big companies spend money on search since it is unproven in his own closed eyes.
  
• You are unethical. This kid was a real ass. My branding angle was "the only current bla" and there is another company that updates their bla information once a month (i will update much more frequently). The other company sells their bla for over double what I do, does not offer free lifetime updates, and makes a way more agressive sales pitch than I do. This low level ludite that saw my site thinks I should explain their product and I should have an asterisks near my branding angle and then describe that another competitor has an ebook that they update monthly. he ~ Moron!

So today I got my happy 1 year anniversary letter from the headhunter that placed me at the job that I quit about 5 months ago.

I know this message is automated not only because I know that they know I quit that job, but also because they have sent other employers my way to offer me jobs I am not interested in.

Automation - it makes no sense to me...but it's worth a post. I do find it ironic that I started that job on April 1st...

The internet is such an open environment that it will drive the driven to success. The problem is the success can be crushing and confusing...cause great inner conflict.

Today I would not describe myself as an all star success, but in a year things have changed a bunch.

The very software which publishes this page has owners. They recently went through a year of rapid change. For a short while their feedback networks were quiet because they had investment relationships they had to keep quiet about.

I could take much of what I know and spread that to great financial gain, but am confused as to what that is for. Yesterday I spent thousands of dollars advertising for a client. Today I do my first taxes as a business. Later this week I will be starting a project where I make nearly the entire amount of what I made last year working for other people.

to describe the situation as anything but scary would be wrong...

So I met the abstract artist Christeas over the internet when I helped him out with his headshots website. Now he is having his art on display in Greece and wants me to be there...cool stuff...I get to go hang out with the president of another country!

Who says the world is not crazy?

On my trip to Greece I will start off near Block Island, call Tom (though I do not know who he is), get my fake id card, get my itinerary, and jet off across the ocean. On my flight back perhaps I will go for some fly in fishing... I shall stay away from the Ouza though!

I predict that the future of the internet will not contain so many huge resources as it does super small niche specific websites. My search marketing info website has so much information on it that its hard to update, hard to navigate, and generally more than people want. I predict the future will be more filled with smaller, simpler websites that are direct to the point such as Banner Ad Bootcamp, Business Email Lists, Ice Cream Profits, and my upcoming domain site Plain Jane Domain.

People will also use more mobile and more interactive devices and software. Things such as Dragon Naturally Speaking will be common on many operating systems within a few years.

Over at ResearchBUZZ they cover how to quick and easily install an RSS feed on your website using feedrole (http://www.feedroll.com.)

Mandarin Design: Cheap Thrills for the Beer-Budget Blogger

thnx to Mark Carey.

Though there are some biases in the data recording, it actually ties in very well if you look at worldwide economics and registered urls. GeoURL Maps

Much the same as people buy things for a construction project, websites themselves need to be built. As you think of interfacing systems such as lighting when you place wood you must also check how search engine spiders react to certain pages of a website.

Its a sad day when even Just a Hint no longer sends its free hints. evil I say...

While many will want to call me crazy, I have a goal to make a directory of most of the major directories in the world. My original list was at my search engine marketing website, but now I am crafting Directory Archives .com

MovableType has begun supporting Atom data distribution. While I do not know a lot about it, I know that Atom is to be a universal data agregation standard so the creative minds behind all blog software can work together.... Finally Atom

Also bloglines allows you to subscribe to blog updates without the need of installing any software...fun stuff!

I have joined the Internet Society and just filled out my first survey about THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY.

Most responses from people were in strong agreement with the ideas given with the exception of:

1.)Expaning the role of the UN in shaping the internet
2.)Giving governments more control of DNS and domains

I suppose this survey does a good job of showing what intelectuals think of their governments. Left alone the internet will take care of itself. Government involvement would inhibit the fundamental basis of why I love the internet: freedom of speech

iCapture - your site through the eyes of Apple's Safari browser

I typically have a rather poor attitude, but this is probably one of the most inspiring posts I can thank of for the holiday season.

In all the bleak stuff I have seen I have been fortunate to have ran across some of the people I have. Sifry's Alerts: Giving Thanks (a very abbreviated list)

So a person who has been working on the web since my early teen years does not like my newsletter. You can not target something for everyone. If all my newsletters are compelling only to advanced web designers then I am missing the big picture. While feedback is important, it should be taken in context!

Unsubscribing reader: "Advice: if you have no news - don't produce a newsletter."

My reply: I removed you from my newsletter. I could write more advanced analytical stuff, but my target audience is not always web design companies that have been on the internet since the mid 90s (I have been on the web less than a year myself). I wrote another article earlier in the week that many people said they enjoyed.

Sorry to have offended you, but I am sure my simplistic tips helped more people than my 1 super advanced seo strategy secret of the week would - at least that is what I saw from all the sites I had seen this week. I am sure you know more about the internet than I, but learning is a process!

"Known as the Can Spam Act, the new federal legislation authorizes, but does not require, the Federal Trade Commission to set up a Do Not E-mail registry similar to the proposed federal Do Not Call list, which is now caught up in litigation. It also carries criminal penalties of up to five years in prison for violators. “With this bill Congress is saying that if you’re a spammer you could wind up in the slammer,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, (D.-N.Y.) a supporter of the legislation, which has passed through both houses of Congress and is expected to be signed by President Bush." - from Knowledge @ Wharton

My problem with federal legislation is that I know all too well that interpretation of fact is frequently determined by financial resources used to prove determination.

Realize that any legal system has errors and I am not implying guilt on OJ.
FACT: if OJ was poor he would probably be in jail today.
FACT: if my sister were rich she would probably not be in jail today for a murder I know she did not do.

My solution to the spam: combine technology with education.

Technology: bayesian spam filter

Education: Just as we teach basic sex education (I am still learning), we can teach junior high school children a 1 hour course on marketing and spam...which will save them many hours of their life in the future.

Also create an online website which offers free educational material and a quick streaming video which covers the same topics. With as much coverage as the current legislation is getting, we must realize that an education based free program would get tons of free coverage.

Have the government sponser a $10,000,000 advertising program for the website (spend ~ 00.00001% of what we are spending to escalate terrorism via "THE WAR ON TERROR").

Sites displaying Google AdSense can provide free distribution and advertising on the pages which do not contain adequate content to display targeted ads. If the site fit my ideas of it I would link to it from all of my websites, as many others would do.

Payment Structure:

Time wasted is money lost. Much of the efficiency which the internet has granted business has been at the expense of consumers. I have thought long and hard about tons of different great financial ideas.

The problem is that in some way any or all systems can be avoided or taken advantage of. Even if all funds that were collected went to 3rd party charities or businesses associated with improving the fundamental technology there would be problems.

Charity: who decides what is worthwhile? What is pure? Our Food For Peace program undermines the stabilitiy of commodities in 3rd world countries causing mass murder and starvation.

Any selection process would have to be rigerous to prevent fraud. Attaching any charity with something as frequently used as email will give it economic advantages which are unparalleled by its competitors, this type of move would also likely destroy the core goals of the charity and undermine any efficiency the organization may of at one time had.

Even non profit organizations have employees they must pay and contracts they must hand out. What little I learned about government spending while attached to navy nuclear power scares me when thinking of the idea of attaching these same ideas to a method of communication as basic as email.

Improving technology fund: if the workers did a really good job they would kill off spam. It would not be in their best interest to do their best work as they would soon loose their jobs.

The desire to attach legislation and finance to the problem are simple in that they further control public opinion and limit human voice in a way which seems pure, but can land me in jail.

Just recently we began to regulate phone calls (after the technology has been around for how long?) The internet has been an amazing success in the spread of humanity. Why suddenly should those who know little about its technology or the internet control it in any way?

please note this may bring up bad pictures if you click on the google search!

A friend of mine is a HUGE porn fan...

While searching for random internet stuff he did the Google Image Search for lesbians

The #1 result is from a page with the words "Jan and Jen share the love." The page has a measly PageRank of 1 and the page has a title of "lesbians," the image and file name shares the same name.

As bad as it would be for your mom to find out about your blog, could you imagine how bad it would be for you to be the #1 resource for "lesbians." Some day the poor girls of the Minnesota Marching Band may face the fact that their mothers find out about their extra cirricular activities.

Its amazing what kind of gifts you can get on the web. Though it is such an impersonal environment, it has the ability to break down impersonal barriers and personalize everything we do. Talking Teddy Bears

So after google delisted many websites for their most competitive terms I wrote an article about what happened. At the same time you have probably the only "major" SEO firm in Rhode Island writing articles telling people they should used dased domains.
Read Choosing a Domain Name for Search Engine Optimization Purposes and then read
my artilce.

Which one seems more honest, more correct?

I guess I am the one who is a fool for wondering why some people want to hire me over some of the "best in the world."

Who in the hell woudl pay $200 for a 6 page eBook on why Google is successful?

I remind you that this is a PDF, and that these are not even real pages! Amazon.com: e-Books & Docs: Understanding Google's Success [DOWNLOAD: PDF]

Sometimes that which is free just happens to be the best too! SquirrelMail - Webmail for Nuts!

So a guy called me today who wanted me to work on his website. He was a rather pleasant and simple man. Reminded me of the old movies and of the time when the idea that a handshake meant something.

He wanted to trade a personal guided preditor hunt for me optimizing his website. I love the old bartering system, but I grit my teeth hard when I see a dead animal on the road.

Can not imagine seeing a Coyote 10 feet from me, and then killing it. To each their own
best of luck Doug
aaron

Dakota Pokes...Western Artwork of Doug Krogman

If you are about to get caught blogging at work, use the Web Fire Escape

An extremely viral idea. Great Marketing Gary!!!

Other than my most recent post about giving paxil to dogs, I have not been around for a while.
What happened?

Google Changed their algorithm which required my full devotion. I have defined a new search term and wrote two articles covering the recent change.

The new Google algorithm has a commercial filter on it which essentially knocks out sites which are overoptimized.

If this algorithm is to stay a new breed of search engine marketing is to come about.

Go Words Definintion

articles

Death Before Birth - The Life Cycle of a Search Engine
Google Sells Christmas

Sometimes I barely have enough time to. Now I am wondering, who is the asshole who keeps sending me emails telling me that I can "read other people's email."

As much as a scumbag as this person is, I am even more angry at the people who buy his software. He would be spamming with something else if you did not buy his garbage. Please stop reading my email!

Imagine how stupid you will feel when you reread the spam you just purchased.
Hotmail

As an entrepenuer I know it is necissary to seek out many avenues to find success...

I feel that I have been unfair to some relgions in my weblog thusfar. I am fixing my problem today.

As an ordained minister I owe it to the church to improve the world online. Becoming a minister was one of the best decisions I ever made.

After I was Ordained by the Universal Life Church I printed out my Minester record sheet and checked the inbox.

The church sent me a confirmation email trying to sell me a spiritual course. I"WE ARE ACTIVE ADVOCATES OF THE GOOD LIFE. THE EASIEST WAY IN WHICH TO GAIN WHATEVER YOU MAY SELECT AS THE GOOD LIFE IS WITH MONEY."

I think they are at least more straightforward than the rest of the church.

So I got this email which I was sucker enough to open. Piece of crap who was spamming me, I have tips on how to improve your conversion rate!

The email stated

I am looking for a good looking man to go on a date with.
from, Heather

Blind Date

Unsubscrbe Here

To try and get by spam filters they used white text. If you actually tried to copy the text you would see the following:

as it was imposing. Some sixty Arab chiefs, clothed in their red
and bowing low before her, she said gently:

Let not my wild fury fright thee,

I am looking for a good looking man to go on a date with.
from , Heather

Blind Date
stammered out:
advice in the days of their youth should come forward as accusers, and take
displeasure), and remained silent. When her husband spoke words
A cockchafer came droning over the hedge and past us. High in the

Unsubscribe Heretoiled and moiled, he only left his widow and son two hundred
SOCRATES: And I in talking use words?
in honour of Bacchus.
in tears and dissatisfaction. But in God's name, old father, if you have
"Project"). Among other things, this means that no one owns a

Tips for improving conversion rate
1.) actually be a useful human being, or
2.) attempt to sound like a person. What the hell kind of random horney girl would have an "Unsubscribe Here" link in her personal "hot" mail :)

For the record
clcltiigcclclm@yahoo.com
is a piece of shit

I was looking to do some link exchanges with some other sites. A link from a site to a site lead me to searchenginedog.com - the most trusted search engine in the web.

As a search engine marketer I know crap when I see it. Whats up dog?

Its not just that the search engine and concept behind it are lame (which is so), but also that the person who bought this script did not even buy it. They are using the freeware version which links back to the script provider. How lame is an investment where you are not willing to spend the extra $40 to not find posts like this about your aweful website. their script

I was at least decent enough to buy the script for my aweful dog search engine. Buy Cheap Cigarettes Online My search engine was created as a mockery as much as anything else, but it is still better than search engine dog.

Them there crazy people in mIRC say some nutty things. Lucky for us they get recorded. Feel free to gander and perhaps vote on the dumbest comment you can find. QDB: Top 50 Quotes

Some wonder why blogs have became so popular. Its pretty simple. Never has it ever been so easy to communicate ideas to tons of people.

Much as WebFountain can do a job of predicting what sale numbers will be like, a person can perform the similar functions using what bloggers are saying.
Those who have blogs are self defined as outspoken "sneezers" who spread ideas.

Here is a list of the top blog community tools and sites. Please help me learn more by adding your favorite tools.

some cool blog tools

Poularity Measurement

Technorati - shows link cosmos and has a top 100 list
Daypop - weblog and news search engine - offers a top 40
BlogShares - fantasy blog game with a top 100 list

Write a Blog

Blogger
MovableType
Grey Matter
Radio Userland
Live Journal
Xanga
Web Crimson
Weblog Software - Yahoo Directory

Weblog Tools and Add Ons

Bloglet - email program offering daily emails to subscribers when their favorite blogs are updated
Weblogs Compendium
YACCS - adds 3rd party hosted commenting to your blog
Meta Linker - posts a link to other sites which are commenting on the same page you are referencing near your posts.
AudBlog - play voice recordings in a blog
Weblog Tools - Google Directory

What are Bloggers talking about right now?

BlogDex
Recently Changed Blogs - Weblogs.com
Daypop WordBurst
Daypop Top 40

OnFocus BookWatch

Books about Blogs

Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content
Essential Blogging
Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs
The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs
We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture

Books about Online Communities

Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate

Make Money (greed is good)

Amazon Associates - earn a percentage of sales from Amazon
Google AdSense - sell ad space on your blog

Register Your Blog

Apply for an ISSN
Weblogs - DMOZ
Weblogs - Yahoo
Blog Search Engine
Blogarama
BlogStreet
Blog Universe
BlogWise
Daypop
Feedster
Globe of Blogs
Kmax Blog Links

Talk about Blogs

Blogger Talk
Blogger Forum

The Future of Blogs

The Echo Project
Blogs as Content Management

please help me learn more about blogs as I am rather new to them!

I am probably one of the biggest fans of Seth Godin in the world. Consider I have went to two of his speeches in the last month and a half, and have even went to his office.

If you need a copy of Purple Cow just let me know...got plenty of them!

I quit my job am making my first solid attempt at a blog, and have became an internet marketer. At about the same time I am going through fixing up my 300 page search engine marketing web site Seth predicts the internet will become the best direct marketing medium in the world where "it's probably cheaper to constantly measure and evolve and redesign a four page offer site than it is to build the annual 400 page website overhaul".

After I spend about a thousand hours updating my site I am sure I will agree with him.

Seth's Blog: My note to Susan

This blog is going to be a personal public blog about all things me. When I am happy, you will know. When I am pissed, you will know. If nothing else this will give me a place to display my open affection for peanut butter.

some of my other websites

Drugs, Depression, and Antidepressant Drugs
Reform Blog
Search Engine Marketing Info
5 HTP (5 Hydroxytryptophan)
Navy Nuclear Power and Navy Nuclear Submarines