Karlonia.com

Last week I reported that this site had been approved for the Barnes & Noble affiliate program and that they offered commissions of 5% for most item categories. Earlier today, I received more good news in the form of an email announcing that the overall commission rate is being increased to 6% for all items:

Dear Valued Affiliate,

Great news! We are pleased to announce an exciting change to the Barnes & Noble affiliate program. Effective June 1st, all products sold on BN.com will earn a flat commission rate of 6%. That means that you will earn industry-leading payments on all of our exciting products including:

1. New & Used Books
2. DVDs
3. Music
4. Print & Digital Magazines (New!)
5. New & Used Textbooks
6. Video Games
7. Gift Cards
8. Toys
9. Home & Gift
10. B&N Membership

Now, earn our best commission from dollar one on every product we sell - there are no more product exclusions or confusing bonus tiers. As always, thank you for your feedback and continued support of our program.

Regards,

The Barnes & Noble Affiliate Team

Note: The quarterly bonus on books will no longer continue after the second quarter, but we will track and pay bonus commissions through June 30th, 2008.

This means that the items in the PC and video game categories, which had formerly earned only 2%, will now get a significant boost, and there will be no more tiered structures with regard to sales volume. The only caveat is that B&N is also phasing out the quarterly bonuses. However, in order to earn enough bonus commissions to exceed the current flat rate of 6% under the old system, I would need to make several thousand dollars in monthly sales, which is a very difficult feat for most bloggers. In effect, the new changes are like getting a 1% raise (4% for video games). For once, it is nice to see a change in terms from a large company that actually benefits the “little guy”!

If you have arrived at this page from Entrecard, chances are that you have already seen all of the posts popping up everywhere about the new ebook and site improvements. Therefore, if you are already a current Entrecard member, this post will not contain any earth-shattering news; however, if you have not yet experienced the traffic building potential of this relatively new community, this might be a good time to take a serious look at it.

As I mentioned above, Entrecard has indeed implemented some significant site improvements within the last week. Probably the most important of these for most people is the capability to add multiple blogs to the same account. This will allow people who have multiple niche blogs to install the Entrecard widget on these sites and earn credits and traffic from them without having to go through the tedious hassle of setting up separate Entrecard accounts and managing multiple email addresses.

My own favorite improvements are the changes that have been implemented in the Campaign interface. It is now possible to sort the various blogs and their widget ads by several different criteria including cheapest price, most popular, most recent, or biggest advertiser. Best of all, you can click on the little “Advertise” line at the bottom of each blog’s widget and instantly send an ad request through to them with a single click — no more wasting time clicking through to every single profile page. For someone like me who is often sending out 100 or more ad requests per day, this has been a major time saver. As you can see from this screenshot of my Entrecard account, I have been having plenty of fun with the new advertising system:

Meanwhile, in addition to the site improvements, the Entrecard administrators have also published a very useful tutorial ebook along with their latest email update. It provides a nice step-by-step guide for how to get started with Entrecard and includes strategies for intermediate and advanced users so that everyone can participate in the system and enjoy it to its maximum potential. I was even fortunate enough to have my little banner ad displayed on page 8 of the book as one of the screenshots of the “On Your Widget” column. This is a good thing because as the ebook is distributed throughout the Internet and readership increases, more people will see the Karlonia.com site name in the picture, which will help with the branding aspect of my overall advertising efforts.

Entrecard is also offering a bonus of 2,000 credits for anyone who publishes a post about their new multi-blog contest and links to the ebook. The contest is for people who have multiple blogs that can be added to the system and are associated with an existing Entrecard account. Anyone who has at least two blogs registered and verified with Entrecard by June 25th is eligible to win 15,000 credits in a random sweepstakes drawing on that date. The full details about the contest and updates can be found at the relevant entry on the Entrecard blog.

Once again it is time to review some of the search queries from the previous week and answer the top questions for which I have the relevant information conveniently stored in my brain’s database. Before I get into the actual keywords, let me take this time to thank all of you who have commented on my posts for the past few weeks. I have been pleasantly surprised with the popularity of my English usage series of posts as they seem to have struck a nerve with some pet peeves of many people, while others are finding them useful because they are learning English as a second language and are able to benefit from having a definitive usage guide for certain groups of words.

Meanwhile, the payment reports and GPT-related posts also seem to be attracting some favorable attention; my last posts on SendEarnings and Treasure Trooper even received a few unexpected Stumbles. They are usually able to draw a fair amount of search traffic also because I can target the names of the programs or websites as keywords. Often these types of keywords have little competition, making it relatively easy to rank for them and attract clicks from people who are searching for information on whether or not a certain program is legitimate or has actually paid anyone. As a nice bonus, they also help with monetization because I can include my referral links and receive commissions as passive income, which helps to pay for ongoing site maintenance expenses as well as compensate me for the time it takes for me to do the necessary research and write the articles.

Now we can look at this week’s most interesting queries:

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The words affect and effect have been the source of many headaches and much confusion even among relatively experienced English users. This is understandable because the two words are very similar in pronunciation and spelling, yet have some subtle differences in meanings and usage that can be difficult to detect. Each word has one meaning that is far more common than the others, but the less common meanings are used often enough in print to create confusion for many readers. In this week’s lesson, I hope to clear things up by providing correct usage examples of the most common meanings first and then explaining some of the more esoteric or archaic usages of these words so that you can be aware of them when reading other publications.

First of all, let us begin by sorting out the different meanings of affect. The most common meaning is to influence, change, or noticeably alter something; sometimes this will apply to people and their feelings or emotions but not always. In either case this form of the word is used as a verb. For example:

1. If you drop phenolphthalein into a clear solution with a pH greater than 8.2, it will affect the appearance of the solution by changing it to a very noticeable pink color.
2. It is debatable whether violent movies or video games truly affect those who view them in any meaningful way.

Meanwhile, there is also a noun form of affect that is rather esoteric and used mostly in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. It refers to a person’s disposition or perceived mental state, particularly regarding outward emotions, body language, and facial expressions. For example:

1. After treatment, the patient remained calm and showed no signs of a hostile affect.
2. The soldiers seen on television had been carefully chosen for blandness of affect. — Norman Mailer

Finally, there is a third meaning of affect that is rarely used in casual conversation but is sometimes seen in literature. It is a verb form like the first one but with a significantly different usage. It means to emulate, imitate, or copy something, usually with the motive of displaying a façade regarding appearance or emotion.

1. Although the Scottish princess affected a bonny disposition, she was secretly suspicious of the other faction’s emissary.
2. In order to remain relatively inconspicuous and gather information, the spy affected the manner of an ordinary merchant.

The word effect is usually used as a noun and refers to the result, consequence, or outcome of something. In fact, we could say that in order to produce an effect, something first has to be affected. The noun form of effect can also refer to the overall result of scientific phenomena such as the magnetic, photovoltaic, or greenhouse effects. Some examples:

1. Although it is possible for global warming to occur during certain time periods, I am still skeptical about the idea that its effects would be as catastrophic as the alarmists claim.
2. If you have ever noticed how hot the inside of a car can get when it is exposed to direct sunlight while its doors are closed, you have experienced a good example of the greenhouse effect.

Meanwhile, it is also possible for effect to be used as a verb in certain instances. This can sometimes create confusion because affect is also used as a verb. The verb form of effect means to produce, make, enforce, accomplish, bring into existence, or cause something to happen. For example:

1. By supporting Bob Barr’s candidacy with the Libertarian Party, we hope to effect change in the dynamics of the 2008 presidential election.
2. The new fiscal policies were designed to effect a passive income through savings and investments.

Now we can look at some examples of incorrect vs. correct usage. For simplicity’s sake (and to keep this post from becoming unbearably long) I will stick to examples of the most commonly used forms of the two words in question.

Incorrect: Most pharmaceutical drugs have both favorable and unfavorable side affects.

Correct: Most pharmaceutical drugs have both favorable and unfavorable side effects.

Incorrect: We hope that our vote totals will be high enough to effect the outcome of the election.

Correct: We hope that our vote totals will be high enough to affect the outcome of the election.

Incorrect: Putting too many annoying ads on your blog can have an unfavorable affect on the experience of its readers.

Correct: Putting too many annoying ads on your blog can have an unfavorable effect on the experience of its readers.

Incorrect: Significant changes in the value of the dollar can effect the purchasing power of Americans when they travel to foreign countries.

Correct: Significant changes in the value of the dollar can affect the purchasing power of Americans when they travel to foreign countries.

For next week, I’m thinking about covering the issue of ad vs. add. This is one that I do not see much coverage of in most of the established grammar guides, yet I have been seeing a surprisingly high number of errors related to misuse of these words recently. Compared to this week’s conundrum, it should make for a relatively short and simple post.

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.