Karlonia.com

Some encouraging news arrived in my email this afternoon when I received two approval notifications from affiliate programs that I applied for almost two weeks ago. One was from Barnes & Noble, the bookstore that I had mentioned briefly in yesterday’s post about shopping for books online. The other was from DoubleClick Performics, an affiliate network that includes the Barnes & Noble program along with many other advertisers. Here is the approval letter from B&N:

Dear Karlonia,

Congratulations and welcome to the Barnes & Noble.com Program. Your application has been approved.

BN.com will be using house links, for more information please click here:
http://www.performics.com/publishers/houselinksfaq-bn.pdf

How to get banners & links:

1) Click here to get creative assets: http://www.connectcommerce.com
/partner/view_related_clients.html?reltype=A&primary=getlinks

2) Once you find the advertiser, select Available Links from the Action menu, and click the Go button. The system takes you to the All Available Links page.

3) You can refine the list of links you would like to view by selecting advanced search and selecting links that meet your needs. You can search by link category, size, type and duration.

4) Once you have found a link, select the checkbox next to the desired link and click the Generate and Add to My Links button. You may select multiple links if you wish.

5) For each link, copy and paste the HTML code into your site to begin tracking. Do not click Duplicate Link unless you want to create a second instance of the link.

Should you have any questions, please take the time to review the online FAQ at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/affiliate/faq.asp . If your question is not answered in our FAQ, contact us at BarnesandNoble(at)publisher.performics.com for further assistance.

We are pleased to have Karlonia as part of the Affiliate Network and look forward to building a lasting and profitable relationship. As a Barnes&Noble.com Affiliate, you’ll enjoy the benefits of partnering with the world’s premier bookseller and a recognized leader in e-commerce.

Sincerely,

DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Program
Powered by ConnectCommerce…www.performics.com

B&N pays 5% commissions on most categories of items including books, textbooks, memberships, gift cards, music, DVD/Videos, calendars, and toys. For PC and video games the commission rate is 2%. They also offer the possibility of collecting a bonus commission of 1%-3.5% per calendar quarter (3 months) if the total sales volume generated exceeds $5,000. While this seems like a pretty high figure, at the rate my mother (and many others, judging by the crowds that I have seen at our local B&N store) buys books from these guys, it may not be too far out of reach. Meanwhile, here is the approval letter from DoubleClick Performics:

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This article by Roz Andrews discusses the advantages of shopping for books online and provides some suggestions for how to use some of the major e-commerce sites in this genre. I’m not sure whether I agree with the author’s premise — my mother is a frequent consumer of books, and most of time she buys them from our local Barnes & Noble store and uses her membership discount. Admittedly, since the advent of the Internet I rarely go shopping for printed books or magazines anymore, so I cannot say for certain whether it is really less expensive to purchase books online or to buy them from a traditional bookstore. Perhaps some of you who have more experience in this area can weigh in on this one.

If you love reading and like to acquire a steady stream of books, shopping for books online is usually more cost effective than visiting a bookstore.

Amazon is the most famous book shopping website. You can browse through Amazon’s catalog of thousands of books and read reviews written by readers. You can either buy new books directly from Amazon or from one of the many Marketplace sellers. If you are eagerly awaiting the latest book by your favorite author, you can pre-order it at Amazon and the book will be sent to you as soon as it is published.

If you love browsing for secondhand books, Amazon and eBay are perhaps the best websites. Used books are sold by Amazon Marketplace sellers and many eBay sellers offer secondhand books. eBay is a treasure trove of rare and difficult to find books, from the antiquarian to the limited edition; from the proof copy to the old and well-read. You can also find books that were only published in other countries.

Amazon and eBay are like extended virtual secondhand bookstores with an unlimited supply. Don’t forget about the many eBay stores specializing in books – you can browse until your heart’s content.

There is often a great deal of overlap between what is offered on Amazon and what is available on eBay. Bear in mind that eBay sellers are free to set their own postage and packaging charges for each book, while Amazon Marketplace sellers have to charge Amazon’s standard shipping rates. This may mean that you can get a better deal on eBay if you are buying only one or two books. However, if you are purchasing several books, Amazon’s charges may be more favorable. If the books you want are offered on both websites at similar prices, compare the shipping charges before buying, and you may be surprised at the savings you could make by just selecting one website over the other.

If you are looking for a rare or out-of-print book that you cannot find on eBay, Alibris.com is the best place to look. It also offers a wide range of textbooks, and free or reduced shipping costs apply to some items.

Other websites offering books include bookstore chains such as Barnes and Noble and Borders, whose website is operated in conjunction with Amazon. It is worth checking out these websites to see if there are any favorable special offers or bulk discount deals.

Nowadays it is possible to purchase books online very inexpensively. In most cases, you will pay less than in a retail bookstore, even after taking the shipping charges into account. So enjoy a day’s book shopping without leaving home and save money by buying books online.

Earlier this morning, I made another serendipitous find of an apparently legitimate work-at-home program called KeyForCash when I discovered this article by Shanna Coon. Normally I am rather skeptical of programs in the data entry category because this is one of those areas where there has been a significant amount of deceptive advertising. Many such programs are sold as ebooks or home study courses but are not what most of us would think of as data entry jobs. In reality, most of them are actually instructions for how to advertise on AdWords and make money as an affiliate or publisher; the “data entry” part comes in when you type the relatively small amount of text that goes into creating the ads.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to make money with AdWords, being successful with it generally requires a substantial amount of knowledge and experience with marketing, not to mention the fact that there are initial costs involved in paying for the clicks. Real data entry jobs are not supposed to work like that — there are no up-front costs to get started, and you are actually paid for the typing, not for advertising products.

Supposedly this Key For Cash program is more like actual data entry, but since I have only recently discovered the site, I have not had the chance to put it through a full vetting process yet. If any of you have previous experience with this program, please share any relevant information with our readers. If the operation is indeed legitimate, it could be a good way to make some extra money without having to actually write articles, maintain a website, or do any advertising, which at this point would be a welcome relief for this particular webmaster.

Earning money at home is a big craze these days, especially with gas prices hovering above $3 per gallon. Low wages, decreased by the cost of fuel and day care, steer many to search for opportunities allowing them to stay home while earning a living. One of the harder markets to gain reputable work in is data entry. The pickings are slim; however, legitimate work-at-home positions do exist. KeyForCash is one of the honest, paying sites offering data entry work for good typists.

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This article by Kristie Leong provides some interesting ideas for using natural remedies to treat the painful symptoms of arthritis. It should serve as a good companion for the articles that I have already written on scurvy and tuberculosis. If I can manage to tackle a few more disease-related issues, I may eventually make a separate category for them.

Arthritis can be a painful and debilitating condition that can interfere with the ability to carry out normal, everyday activities that many of us take for granted. The pain, stiffness, and joint swelling can take its toll on even the most stoic of patients. Traditionally, prescription anti-inflammatory medications have been used to treat the symptoms of arthritis but with recent studies showing the potentially serious side effects of these drugs, many people are seeking natural remedies for arthritis pain. Fortunately, there are a variety of natural ways to reduce the pain and discomfort of arthritis. Here are some of the most promising:

Lifestyle modifications

This is probably the most important way to naturally relieve the pain and discomfort of arthritis. The two main lifestyle changes that can have a major impact on arthritis symptoms are daily exercise and weight reduction. Daily exercise such as a brisk walk or a daily swim can help to increase joint mobility and reduce stiffness. Swimming is an ideal form of exercise for the arthritis sufferer as it doesn’t place additional stress on the joints. If you choose to walk, be sure to select a quality walking shoe with good support to lower the impact of your foot against the pavement. Weight loss also helps to reduce stress on the joints which can help relieve arthritis symptoms. Make a commitment to a healthy diet and exercise plan and you’ll go a long way towards soothing your aching joints.

Fish oils

The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties similar to prescription anti-inflammatory medications without the negative side effects. If you’re unable to add more fatty fish to your diet, consider supplementing with three 1,000 milligram omega-3 fatty acid capsules on a daily basis. These can be found at your local health food store.

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Although I usually think of myself as being reasonably Internet savvy, the concept of rick rolling was one of those things that I never really understood until I read this article by Sarah Borrum in the Constant Content listings. Apparently the “rick roll” is a type of relatively harmless practical joke where visitors are tricked into clicking on a link that points to a Rick Astley music video. Personally, this does not seem very funny to me, although it does seem to have the effect of building more popularity for this Rick Astley fellow. If the risk of annoying visitors could be mitigated somehow, perhaps this could be used as a marketing ploy to promote another person or product of our choice.

“You got Rick Rolled!” is a common statement on the Internet. Forums, chat rooms and Web sites of all kinds are filled with Rick Rolls and posts about them.

What, you ask, is a Rick Roll?

Put simply: a Rick Roll is a seemingly innocent link, usually to a YouTube video. The person who posts the URL will claim that the link goes to something interesting. He might, for example, claim that you will see leaked video game or movie footage. That is just one of many creative stories, as many Rick Rollers are in on this little Web game.

So you click the link, thinking that you will see something cool.

Instead, you’re taken to a video of singer Rick Astley performing one of his soft-pop hits. Typically, the song is “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

If you click the link, then you’ve just been Rick Rolled. Some Internet users think that this is funny. Others are merely annoyed by the deception. Either way, Rick Rolling is currently a common Internet prank. You might as well accept the fact that the more time you spend online, the more likely you are to be a victim.

When you’re Rick Rolled, the finest revenge is to concoct a decent cover story to legitimize your own link to another Rick Roll. Avenging yourself is an upstanding tradition among Rick Rollers, so don’t be afraid to reciprocate with another Astley video.

Another thing to remember when you’re Rick Rolled is that it is considered proper to allow the link to continue tricking other users. Though many Internet users will comment in that thread or section that they’ve just been Rolled, there are also quite a few users who will maintain the link’s cover story even after they’ve become victims.

Example: If you’ve been told that the link takes you to a video of a new horror movie trailer, you can go back to the forum where it was posted and type, “Wow, that’s going to be great!” or something similar.

You can visit YouGotRickRolled.com for quick and easy links to Rick Astley videos to get you started on Rick Rolling. There are also plenty of Rick Astley videos on YouTube, many of which are commonly used for this type of practical joke.

Photo credit: Epixx at Flickr.com

During this past week, Google seems to have reshuffled my pages in the search results again. Although my overall search traffic hasn’t changed much, Google has decided to drop my Flash Flash Revolution page out of the main index after ranking it consistently in the #11-20 spots but has steadily increased my ranking for Fair Tax Pros and Cons, which had moved all the way up to #3 as of last night. Google works in mysterious ways - there have been several such instances of pages increasing in rank even though they do not seem to be receiving any backlinks, yet other pages are being dropped completely out of the main index for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, here are the eight most interesting queries for this week.

have a lots of work vs have a lot of work what is correct in english — The correct phrase would be “have a lot of work”. Writing “a lots” would be incorrect because the article “a” is singular while “lots” is plural, creating an inconsistency between the noun and its modifier. You could say “a lot” (singular) or “many lots” (plural), but not “a lots”. I should also point out that the phrase “a lot”, while grammatically correct, is considered an example of informal usage in this particular context. In other words, if you are writing a business letter, an academic paper, or any other type of formal document, it would be better to write the phrase as “have much work”.

How do you cut Zucchini into Pasta? — You can use a julienne style cutting technique to slice the zucchini into long strips that somewhat resemble pasta but have a lower carbohydrate content and glycemic index. Further details can be found at How to Make Julienned Zucchini Pasta.

what to do when your computer slows down — There are several general maintenance operations that you can perform in an attempt to remedy a slow computer before resorting to paying lots of money for technical assistance. Things like antivirus scans, disk defragmentation, cleaning your registry, and several other relatively painless procedures may be able to improve your computer’s performance. More details are located at Fix the Computer CPU Speed.

in the computer keyboard where is the processes tab — If you are using a Windows operating system, simply hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously and press Del. This should bring up the Windows Task Manager with the “Processes” tab automatically selected. According to a comment made on one of my previous posts, a similar operation can be performed on Linux systems by opening up a console window and using the ‘top’ command.

what is simple interest amortization? — “Amortization” refers to the process of paying off a debt or financing a loan over time. The “simple interest” part means that the interest you pay is calculated at a flat rate per month over the life of the loan and does not compound. Simple interest amortization is commonly used as a method of financing major purchases such as auto loans or mortgages on homes or other real estate.

what draws ants into the house? — Although there are many things that may cause ants to wander into your house without a formal invitation, they are particularly attracted to leftover food crumbs, sugar granules, and spilled sugary liquids such as sodas or heavily sweetened Kool-Aid. Keeping your floors and kitchen countertops clean is a good first line of defense against ant infestations.

what the ingredient of Nsima? — Nsima is essentially corn (maize) that has been ground into flour and mixed with water to form a nutritious paste that somewhat resembles mashed potatoes in appearance. It is a very important staple food in Malawi, Zambia, and several other African countries.

how to make gasoline at home — With the recent rise in crude oil and petrol prices, this is certainly an understandable query and is something that I would like to figure out how to do. Unfortunately, building a refinery in one’s backyard does not seem very practical, and digging up the required raw materials generally requires heavy equipment and more land area than most of us have on our current properties. If anyone knows about an alternative method for producing gasoline that would be practical for home use, I would certainly like to see it!

A common mistake that inexperienced writers make when they try to compose original essays, articles, or blog posts is attempting to transcribe conversational English directly onto the printed page. This does not always work because the pronunciation of certain words and phrases can become corrupted with informal speech in ways that render them incorrect when written as standard English. A classic example of this phenomenon occurs when people write the phrase could have as “could of” or “coulda”. Similar errors occur with the phrases would have and should have.

Neither of the latter two forms (”could of” or “coulda”) is correct; these phrases should be written out as could have, would have, or should have. It is acceptable in less formal situations to use the contracted forms could’ve, would’ve, or should’ve, although for any written material that is intended for publication, I would play it safe and write out the word have separately.

Now we can look at some examples of relevant usage mistakes from other Internet sources and provide some much-needed corrections:

Incorrect: It could of been worse. You could of went back in time to when Hiroshima was bombed. — user Killy_mcgee on xkcd.com forum

Correct: It could have been worse. You could have gone back in time to when Hiroshima was bombed.

Incorrect: what if Trotski would of become the leader of the soviet union apose to Stalin? — user chillerwhale, attempting to post an interesting historical topic on BigThink.com

Correct: What if Trotsky would have become the leader of the Soviet Union as opposed to Stalin?

Incorrect: Terminator 3 Trailer (How It Should Of Been) — Actual title of a YouTube video, posted by user C2JUK

Correct: Terminator 3 Trailer (How It Should Have Been)

Incorrect: You coulda had Dinosaur dung for $1,000 — article title from the Offbeat News section of azcentral.com

Correct: You Could Have Had Dinosaur Dung for $1,000

For next week, I have tentatively scheduled coverage of affect vs. effect, which is an issue that seems to confuse many people because of the different meanings of those two words. Another contender is the usage of who vs. that when referring to either people or inanimate objects. Many people are continuing to use “that” when referring to people, which has been a source of much irritation among English teachers and grammarians.

Since most of us bloggers and Internet marketing enthusiasts have our business operations based on (surprise!) the Internet, it seems natural that our advertising would be done online also. However, as long as our websites are designed to attract readers, deliver useful information, and ultimately make money, it never hurts to look at some of the more traditional and creative offline advertising methods as a way of attracting visitors to our sites that otherwise may never have known about us. As with most of her others, this article by Cheryl Frost is primarily targeted toward brick-and-mortar small businesses, but it also presents some interesting ideas for using offline advertising that we could apply to our Internet marketing endeavors.

Marketing for your small business requires that you keep up with the times, and that means taking advantage of digital media sources such as websites and cable TV. But digital marketing should only be used as a supplement to conventional methods. Never abandon old school tactics. Remember, not all of your potential customers will be digitally oriented, and a simple OFF button can kill your marketing connection. Non-digital media keeps the line open while still providing creative ways to lure in new prospects.

TRADITIONAL PRINT MARKETING

Newspapers and Telephone Directories

Good old fashioned print marketing is still a very common way to increase sales. No respectable newspaper lacks plenty of supportive ads. Do a little research on your target newspaper’s circulation to see not only how many people purchase the paper, but also how many businesses subscribe.

Telephone directories are also heavily used these days. A decent sized yellow pages ad would be a helpful supplement to a simple address listing. You can’t include as much information as a website, but you can promote your company’s unique competitive edge in your directory ad.

Signs

Businesses that operate out of customer-oriented shops decorate their walls with signs that advertise and inform. Customers who enter your shop for one particular item will have their attention drawn to other products and services you offer. Any promotions or discounts will be noted in signs on the walls, hopefully enticing the customer to inquire about them.

When customers have to wait for your services, they have nothing to do except read. Their eyes will skim the walls for all written words, not realizing that what they are actually doing is learning. Be sure all of your signs are informative, but not misleading.

CREATIVE MARKETING

Promoting a new business requires a little creativity, but it doesn’t mean you have to hire someone to stand on a corner in a gorilla suit, waving your logo. Creative marketing means that your business logo can appear in the most natural, yet unexpected places.

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Today’s review focuses on the topic of USB flash drives, specifically the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium models. Kudos go to Lynn Sullivan, who was nice enough to write this article for me and recommend one of her favorite products. I have also created a new Product Reviews category for these kinds of articles to distinguish them from reviews of other websites. If you have any favorite products that you would like to recommend OR you have experience with a certain product that does not work as advertised, you may submit relevant articles for inclusion in this category through the Contact page.

USB flash drives are a very crowded market segment. Nearly every company that makes some kind of memory for computers makes at least one of these drives.[1] They are so common, yet most people only shop for price and storage capacity. This is a huge mistake. I have talked to numerous people who have bragged about the cheap flash drive they bought on sale. Surprise! Their computer failed to recognize it or it quit working after a few months. If you’re serious about your data, buy a flash drive with a good reputation and the features you want. One flash drive I can recommend is the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium. It comes in 4GB and 8GB sizes. The new model, Sandisk Cruzer Titanium Plus, comes in 4GB only. Both have U3 technology.

USB flash drives adhering to the U3 specification are termed “U3 smart drives”. Flash drives with U3 software allow you to run specially optimized applications from the USB drive itself. You can run special versions of Firefox, Skype, and dozens of other programs, keeping all your history and data on the USB drive without leaving any trace of your activity on the host computer.[2] This is a incredibly useful feature for going from home to work! You can carry your files AND your software with you.

The bookmark sync for Firefox comes in handy. You take the flash drive to work, plug it in, and have all your favorite bookmarks at your fingertips — just like at home. You can go to the website at U3.com and download an enormous number of programs to run on your Sandisk. Many are free, and more are being added all the time. Categories of downloads include audio-video, business, designs and photos, education, email, games, Internet, security, utilities, and web browsers.

Sandisk does offer a utility to remove the U3 functionality from your Cruzer, turning it into a standard USB flash drive. SanDisk claims that the Cruzer Titanium 8GB is capable of lightning fast performance: 9MB/s write speed and 15MB/s read speed. It also has a very nice distinctive Blue LED. Either model has a retractable port so you don’t have to worry about those stupid caps that fall off or are forgotten on the desk.

This flash drive is an exceptionally stylish, extremely rugged, and incredibly fast USB 2.0 High Speed flash drive, designed to withstand harsh working environments and operating conditions, as well as physically protect the valuable data of business and power users. According to Sandisk, the drive is practically indestructible, featuring a titanium coated metal casing for astonishing durability. It is built with Liquidmetal casing that is crush resistant to over 2,000 lbs. Cruzer Titanium is manufactured using an advanced titanium alloy from Liquidmetal Technologies, commonly used for aerospace, medical devices, sporting goods, and other applications that require lightweight strength and the ability to withstand extremes of temperature. This unique alloy is approximately 2.5 times the strength of titanium.[3] Cruzer Titanium is a very smart USB flash drive that’s almost unbreakable.

Cruzer Titanium Plus, a new model in the titanium series, announced on Jan. 2, 2008, even helps protect the user against accidentally deleting important files. Files deleted from the drive can be easily recovered by signing into the online backup account. It is designed to be a true ’set it and forget it’ type of data protection.[4] This newer model comes in the 4GB size and is packaged in a rugged, crush resistant metal case as is the regular model. BeInSync provides the online data backup. Amazon Web Services, the technology arm of Amazon.com, stores the online data for BeInSync. However, although this service is free for six months, you may incur renewal costs after the trial has expired. Sandisk Titanium also claims it has enhanced Windows ReadyBoost, unlike many of the other flash drives on the market. When you plug in any “Enhanced for ReadyBoost” flash drive, Windows Vista gives you the option of using the drive to speed up your system by using the drive as additional memory.

SanDisk offers a lifetime warranty in addition to a lost and found service. They improve the deal with a collection of applications for password-based encryption, data backup, and synchronization of both My Documents and Outlook data using 128-bit AES encryption. Users can effortlessly store their crucial documents, pictures, video, and music clips and later transfer them to another computer with a USB port. Small, compact size fits on any keychain or lanyard.[5] This is the gold standard of flash drives.

References Cited

[1] www.livedigitally.com/2005/10/27/sandisk-titanium-cruzer/
[2] www.consumersearch.com/www/computers/usb-flash-drives/
[3] www.liquidmetal.com/news/dsp.news.11×104.asp
[4] www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/
idUS88445+02-Jan-2008+BW20080102
[5] www.sandisk.com/Products/

This article by Cheryl Frost discusses the importance of overall image and logo design for small businesses, which could easily be applied to either traditional brick-and-mortar establishments or to Internet marketers with virtual storefronts. It also highlights a subject that I am still grappling with; I have not yet chosen a definitive logo for Karlonia.com and need to do so eventually so that I can truly begin to advertise the site as its own brand. If you have any ideas for a logo or design that would best represent the site, please let me know in the comment section.

To ensure that your small business is memorable, that it stands out from the rest, the professional image you dress it in is one of the most important elements of marketing. Your business image encompasses everything it is remembered for — a descriptive name, creative logo, and catchy tagline. These characteristics are what make or break the longevity of your company. Give your small business a set of fingerprints, a unique identification that customers will never forget.

Names and Brands

Choose a clever name for your company but one that also describes what you do. If you are too cutesy with the naming process, people might remember the name without any recollection of who you are. The same holds true for your product names. The products your company produces become your specialty, your brand. Name your products strategically and then wear the brand well.

Business Logo

How you present your company’s name is just as important as the name itself. A logo represents the name by way of art, logotype, and color palette. You’ll need to design a logo that is visually appealing yet easy enough to read.

The graphic art of your logo starts with a symbol or icon. The logotype gives the name a unique, memorable flair. Choosing a color scheme to combine the art, type, and background can be important too in the identity of the logo. Colors are often chosen by relevance of the product (i.e. brown for chocolate, green for nature) or to support an appropriate emotional response. The right design can help etch your company name into the minds of the viewers.

To see just how influential logos are, think about some of the most famous logos. Pepsi, as a good example, has used a variety of the same logo for decades. But no matter how many ways they tried it, you could count on the red, white and blue sphere. If you took the name, Pepsi, off of the can, wouldn’t you still know what brand it was? The same holds for the Coca-Cola brand. You might think that if you removed the Coke label, it would be just a red can. But it is the specific shade of red, the carbonated impressions, and the ribbon-like white line that tells you the drink is a Coke. The cursive lettering with the last C weaving in through the last L is also unique in telling the drinker that it’s Coke. So it is the design as a whole and not the individual components that identify your business logo.

Making your logo known

Once you’ve created the perfect logo, integrate it into everything you do. The logo should appear on letterheads, advertisements, invoices, and even shipping materials. If you have a website, your logo should be on each page so the customers always know they are in the right place. Several variations of the same logo (i.e. different sizes) make it easier to imprint the logo in different places. Your logo might not be as impressive on a huge billboard as it is on a promotional pencil. So create a design that will accommodate both.

Out-market your competitors

If most of the community already knows a business like yours, why do they need you? That is exactly what you need to integrate into your marketing strategy. Create a company tagline that shows prospects your uniqueness. Make them need you.

In your advertising campaign, invent a catch phrase that plays on your customers’ emotions. Do you remember the catch phrase, “Just Do It”? Those three words had a major impact on Nike’s sales. People went around saying “just do it” because they liked the power it gave them to take charge. They weren’t as in-charge as they thought they were, of course, because they were acting on Nike’s command. Inadvertently, these Nike parrots provided free advertising for the sporting goods company simply because they had the catch phrase implanted in their brains.

When you create a catch phrase that your customers never forget, something more memorable than anything your competitors have ever invented, you will have out-marketed your competitors, causing customers to veer away from them and toward you instead.

Your business image is much more significant than any single product you offer. After all, you do want your customers to remember your product, but more importantly, you want them to remember where they got it. Make that first impression a lasting one. Be creative with your name, logo, and tagline. And when you out-market your competitors, be creative when spending the extra money you will undoubtedly bring in.

Earlier this morning, I discovered a new site called Writers:Share (apparently the colon is supposed to be part of the name) that claims to pay writers for making comments on topics that are posted by the site. Currently their topics are leaning toward workplace clothing, fashion accessories, credit cards, debt management, and home furnishings. The four main categories listed in the sidebar include fashion, homes, money, and food.

After making a comment that gets approved, they will pay £1 (currently worth about 2 USD) each for up to 50 comments. After that, the rate increases to £1.50 per comment with a £50 bonus being paid after your 500th comment. Payments are processed via PayPal every Friday.

Regarding length, the site owners are looking for something in between the typical blog comment and a full-length article. According to their examples, it seems that they are seeking informative blocks of writing that read more like short blog posts that are three or four paragraphs long and fall within the 200-400 word range. They do point out that our writing should be unique (no duplicate content), so we will not be able to get away with copying and pasting text from other sources.

The company appears to be based in the UK (United Kingdom) and has established an active community on Facebook. Writers:Share states that they donate 25p for every comment to their favorite charity organizations. Currently these include WWF (World Wildlife Fund), Red Cross, Garden Africa, and Shelter. As of this writing, the site is reporting total charitable donations of £185.24.

WritersShare is registered under the domain writersshare.co.uk and is using the WordPress blogging format to post its comment topics and program updates. According to the archives, the site has existed since March 16, 2008, making it slightly less than two months old.

At this point, my information on this program is still rather sketchy because it is so new and I do not yet have any direct personal experiences with the company to report. If the site turns out be legitimate, it might be a good way of making some extra money while practicing my article writing and commenting skills. Meanwhile, if any of you happen to have some experience with WritersShare, please let me know about this in the comment section. If I can gather enough reliable information on this program and perhaps even receive some payments from it, I can write up a full review article so that our readers and search visitors will have the chance to check out another work-from-home opportunity.

The GPT program SendEarnings.com released the May edition of its monthly newsletter last week, announcing an improved site design and some additions to its Cash Shopping section. After logging into my account earlier this morning and completing a few offers and surveys, I did notice a change in the design — it’s nothing terribly drastic, but the contrasts among the existing colors seem a little more pronounced and give the site a more pleasing look. They have also made it easier to navigate to the “100% Free Offers” after logging in, which is a good thing because this is usually the section that I concentrate on first. Meanwhile, here is the actual text of the newsletter:

New Design

At SendEarnings®, we’re consistently working on new ways to make your membership experiences even better. Along with our new design, we’ve enhanced our Cash Shopping section to give you even more cash back for your purchases. In addition to more cash back, for the month of May you’ll also earn Sweepstakes entries for your purchases. Check out our new look, browse our featured stores and enjoy your cash back!

Cash Shopping

Along with the new look of SendEarnings, we’ve also added a featured stores section to our Cash Shopping. These are displayed on the first page when you visit Cash Shopping. Here, you’ll find the best deals and get the most cash back for your purchases.

Visit Cash Shopping and see how easy it is to get cash back. Simply choose a store, make a purchase and automatically receive cash back credited to your SendEarnings account. When offered, get extra savings by using the coupon codes that are listed with stores on our featured stores page.

Coupon codes are like an electronic version of the coupons you would cut out of a newspaper and use when purchasing items at a store. Coupon codes are displayed along with some listed stores and, just like paper coupons, are used to save you money when you check out.

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More questions are arriving through the search queries this week, some of which have been surprisingly thoughtful and challenging. I have saved some of the more difficult questions that I do not have immediate answers for in my text file, where I can refer back to them later for further research. Meanwhile, I can deal with the relatively easy ones first.

why gun control is needed? — Gun control is needed so that you can accurately aim your firearm at its target when necessary. Failure to properly control your gun can result in unfortunate and embarrassing accidents, and may also provide misguided politicians with an excuse to take away even more of our freedoms than they already have. Remember to use both hands whenever possible.

pros and cons of cigarettes — This one really deserves a separate article, but I can think of a few points to start. Pros: 1) Purchasing cigarettes provides economic assistance to farmers, manufacturers, and others employed in the tobacco industry, 2) Consumption of cigarettes gives governments an excuse to tax them, which is not really a good thing per se, but as taxes go, I see this as a preferable alternative to an income tax, 3) Heavy use of cigarettes reduces the life span of most smokers, thereby culling the population somewhat and reducing its environmental impact. As a bonus, non-smokers like me should have less competition in the search results Cons: 1) increased risk of lung cancer (and a variety of other diseases), 2) decreased lung capacity and physical endurance, 3) decreased economic efficiency due to cigarettes becoming more expensive.

atm fees can add up — Yes, this is true, especially if you are fond of using ATMs frequently. You can reduce ATM fees by using banks that reimburse them or by withdrawing more cash on each ATM visit, which will result in fewer trips to the machines and less money being spent on fees over the long run.

if you enter your atm number backward what will happen — You will get an “incorrect PIN” error. There is an urban legend that has been circulating as the result of an email hoax which suggests that entering your PIN number backwards can be used as a way of secretly summoning police in the event you are being robbed. However, my research indicates that there is no actual truth to this rumor.

how long has scurvy been around in history — Scurvy has been around as long as people have because the human body cannot produce its own vitamin C. However, problems with scurvy became most noticeable during the Age of Exploration (approximately 1500-1800 AD) due to the long periods of time required to complete voyages combined with the rather poor diets of most ship crews during this period. Of course, ignorance was also a major factor — it was not until the 20th century that the link between vitamin C deficiency and scurvy was established.

do I need an exterminator to get rid of ants? — In most cases, no. There are plenty of ways to get rid of ants in your house without having to resort to calling in an exterminator. Some of them are actually rather creative and relatively environmentally friendly.

how much do bums make — This varies significantly depending on the type of bum, geographical location, and various intangible factors such as desire and motivation. If you’re a bum marketer, there is no theoretical limit to how much you can make because the income is passive and derived mostly from affiliate sales of an indeterminate number of products. For ordinary bums, their income will depend mostly on the amount of panhandling they can do and the kinds of items they can obtain through dumpster diving or other exploratory activities.

is sendearnings a scam? — No, I have already confirmed payment from them. However, I wish that they would implement PayPal payments as an alternative to the relatively slow “snail mail” checks. Many people have been asking about this in the search queries, which suggests that SendEarnings and other similar programs could expand their member base if they would add PayPal as a payment option.

The words accept and except are similar in pronunciation, but have very different meanings. Perhaps not surprisingly, this has led to a significant amount of confusion and incorrect usage. In this week’s lesson, I will clarify and summarize the actual meanings of these two words and provide examples of correct usage.

In general, accept is used as a verb and means “to take or receive something willingly” — that is, without objecting, contesting, or otherwise challenging it. For example:

1. We will accept the site owner’s invitation to participate in the contest.
2. Even if you don’t have a credit card, we can still pay for our meal because this restaurant still accepts checks.
3. Although there were many irregularities, the majority of the American public seems to have accepted the outcome of the election.

Another variation on the meaning of accept is when it is used with the connotation of believing in something or regarding something as correct or proper.

1. Atheists do not accept the idea of an invisible, omnipotent sky daddy.
2. Skeptics do not accept that a small amount of global warming will have such catastrophic effects.
3. I accepted her theory as plausible even though I did not have any specific proof of it.

Meanwhile, the word except is most commonly used as a preposition or conjunction and means “besides, excluding, or other than”. For example:

1. The mainstream media coverage was not fair because they reported on all candidates except for independents and members of third parties.
2. I used all of the text in the article except for the portions that were duplicate content.
3. Politicians like to talk about corruption except when it occurs within their own parties.

Alternatively, except can be used as a verb meaning “to exclude” or “to leave out”. Although this usage is less common than the first, it is still grammatically correct.

1. The Commission on Presidential Debates has routinely excepted all candidates that were not Democrats or Republicans. The inclusion of Ross Perot in 1992 was a rare exception to this.
2. At many public events, children are often excepted from paying admission fees or are allowed to attend at significantly reduced rates.
3. The rel=’nofollow’ attribute excepts links from passing PageRank to the linked web pages.

Now we can look at some examples of incorrect usage and their corrected versions:

Incorrect: We except aluminum cans for recycling.
Correct: We accept aluminum cans for recycling.

Incorrect: All members were paid accept the cheaters.
Correct: All members were paid except the cheaters.

Incorrect: Keyword-stuffed pages should be accepted from high rankings in the search results.
Correct: Keyword-stuffed pages should be excepted from high rankings in the search results.

As was the case last week, there is no clear winner for the topic of next week’s lesson. My overall tendency is to continue with similar-sounding word groups that are often misused such as site vs. sight vs. cite, but I could also switch tracks and cover a somewhat larger topic such as commas, quotation marks, or capitalization. As usual, if there is a consensus among the commentators, I will select the chosen topic; otherwise, I will randomly choose another one from my ever-growing list.

Earlier this morning as I was commenting on a post related to keyword stuffing on another blog, I had a major “WTF moment” when I followed up on some research from my earlier article on Google returning sexist search results. While it seems that Google and Yahoo are no longer returning statements such as “did you mean he led” and “did you mean shelled” for the “she led” (broad match) query respectively, MSN is still ranking the page “Where She Led Me” at #2. In case you’re curious, are reading this at later date, and cannot turn up the result in the search engines, the aforementioned page can be found at http://www.necessaryprose.com/whereshe.htm.

After looking at the page again, I also realized that this is a classic example of keyword stuffing - EVERY sentence in that run-on paragraph begins with “she led”. As I was typing out my comment on the other blog, I was essentially agreeing with the conventional SEO advice that we should not try to use a high keyword density because it could be flagged as spam and will not make a noticeable difference anyway. When I noticed the “she led” result, I had to amend my comment somewhat and provide a caveat example of how keyword density can still have an effect with “non-Google search engines”.

But then came the real kicker - I looked up at my FireFox Search Status display and noticed that the page actually has a Google PageRank of 3! It is also ranked #47 in the Google results for the “she led” query, which may not seem terribly high, but considering the fact that there are 12.4 million total results, it seems that Google thinks that this page still holds some importance. Go figure…

So apparently in their infinite wisdom, the almighty Google gods have seen fit to “spank” my entire blog from a PR 3 back to zero (for reasons I have yet to determine) even though it has 399 articles that are supposed to have solid, informative content, yet this little keyword-stuffed page gets rewarded with a PR 3?! Sorry Google, but this time I’ll have to score one for the “PageRank is useless” camp!