Archive for March, 2007

Friday’s Finds - 03/23/2007

Well, I decided to try a new post series called “Friday’s Finds”. In most cases they’re Thursday’s finds; I just post them Friday…in case ya missed it. Here are a few interesting posts I found around the blogosphere. Ok, well, I didn’t have to look THAT far. These folks are MyBlogLog community members, or have been kind enough to link to derrich.com. So without further ado…

• In case any of you are on the job hunt, particularly the college student body, here are some helpful job fair tips from Jane and John Anthony over at CareerRamblings.com
• This weekend, I’m having a bunch of old college buddies and friends from work over for a crawfish boil. Natron Drach posts about barbequing in Wisconsin among his other food reviews. I’ve always wondered what grilling out in the snow was like. I’ve always wondered what snow was like.
• Matt Coddington over at NetBusinessBlog informs us about Google’s attempt to alleviate click fraud with Pay-Per-Action advertising, in which a consumer must take further action after clicking, such as buying a product or filling out a web form. I suppose the AdBlackList is a viable alternative until this is made available.
• When I drive, I tend to blast the radio and sing…or rap. Anyway, let’s not talk about that anymore. The point is I tend to set my phone on vibrate and stuff it between my legs so I can “hear” it go off. I read this post about how cell phones lower fertility in males on shackkdiesel.com. I guess I’ve got to come up with a different way…that is, if it’s not too late.
• And for my female readers, Ms Danielle over at Pinkdeals.net features numerous sales on those things you guys “apparently” need. Lancome is offering free shipping on some makeup stuff, and BCBG handbags are on sale as well. Go crazy, ladies!

Needless to say, I threw that last one in there (sorry, Danielle). Just showing a little link love. And don’t forget that voting for Round 1 of the 2007 Bloggers Tournament ends today at 11:59pm CST. Be sure to vote for your favorite blogs.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Got Monsters? Ask A 3-Year-Old For Advice

If you have kids, and they are scared or monsters…or of the dark…show them this video. This 3-year-old isn’t scared of $#!T. She’s kicks ask!

2007 Bloggers Tournament - derrich.com — What Are you Gonna Do To The Monster?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Bloggers Donate To Charity Too

With the extra traffic coming through derrich.com from fellow MyBlogLog members as a result of the Bloggers Tournament, I’ve visited alot of blogs over the last couple of weeks (yes, I visit and read every blog from a new MBL member that I can on my “Recent Readers” widget). While sifting through all of the posts about AdSense, blogging tips, WordPress plugins, and all the new communities to join…I’ve come across a few blogs that do some special things.

Get In Google’s Shadow, Help The American Red Cross
Gary Lee, who happens to be competing in my 2007 Bloggers Tournament…Take 2…has a great site dedicated to saving energy…sort of.

Some of you maybe wondering what the hell that GoogleShadow thing is. Well, it was a topic that I came across in the blogosphere, which I know some of you remember - Saving the world 3000 MegaWatts a year. So, since I had an extra slot in my ixwebhosting plan, I thought I’d create a simple landing page with a black background to help do my part. I know there are discussions where LCDs use just as much energy producing a black image compared to a white image, but for the 25% of the world who use CRTs, I thought to myself - eh, why not?

Aside from hoping to conserve some powah, Gary has also arranged to donate 50% of the proceeds made from using Googleshadow.com to the American Red Cross.

Click A Button, Donate A Dollar To…
Alex Shalman is running a contest on his blog in which he will give up to $500 to charity. On April 15th, he will randomly select a blogger that has linked to this contest and allow them to choose a “legitimate” charity to which the money will be donated. He even has additional funding from other sources to up the ante…er, donation. In order to participate, Alex asks that you provide a link to his blog and include the following:

Alex Shalman at Practical Personal Development (a blog about self help and personal growth) is hosting a Donation Contest in which you press a button and he donates a dollar.

So, while I’d love to win and donate my “winnings” to Assistance League San Antonio, I urge all of you to spread the word. That’s exactly what Alex wants.

Honorable Mention
Many bloggers out there know who John Chow is. John donates a portion of his blog earnings to charity. Not only that, he recently arranged to feed the hungry this Easter by matching his readers’ donations to the Union Gospel Mission…in both Canada and the United States. John’s campaign raised over $1,000 for UGM’s Easter Meal drive, which will pay for nearly 400 dinners. Kudos, John. I’m proud to say that I participted in the drive as well.

Over at DoshDosh.com, I found a post that listed 14 search engines that donate money to charity. The search engines place ads next to your search results, and donate anywhere between 30-70% of ad revenues. All in all, it comes out to about a penny per search. Be sure to visit all of these and do your best to participate.

Popularity: 2% [?]

2007 Bloggers Tournament Update, Round 1

Well, we’re midway through Round 1 of the 2nd 2007 Bloggers Tournament. Below you will find the current scores as of 12:00am CST (03/21).

Don’t forget that participating blogs may earn additional votes simply by linking to this or the original post in one of your posts this week and use anchor text that says “Vote for my blog at Derrich.com” (or something to that effect) and you will receive 5 extra votes, which I will add on to the final poll results. ROUND 1 VOTING ENDS THIS FRIDAY AT 11:59pm CST. By the way, I’ll look at trackbacks in my comments section to determine who linked. If you don’t see your trackback, email me using the “Contact” tab in the header.

ROUND 1 VOTING IS OVER.

You can see where the campaigns (linking to the competition) have worked. If you haven’t voted, please vote for your favorite blogs today!

Popularity: 2% [?]

MyBlogLog And AdSense Don’t Agree

Ever since I joined MyBlogLog (MBL), I’ve enjoyed using the “View Site Stats” for live tracking of clicks. In fact, the first week I spent entirely way too much time “analyzing” the stats. Refresh. Refresh…Refresh.

Well after a few days, I began to notice that my Google AdSense stats did not agree with those from MBL. Early this morning before I headed off to work, I checked both. Here’s what I saw:

Google AdSense

MyBlogLog

So, 17 clicks as reported by MBL and a big fat zero from Google AdSense…with 101 impressions. What gives? I was ready to contact Google about this discrepancy, but I decided to use Google Blogearch to see if other blogs were having the same issues. I kinda figured I wasn’t the only one. Smart, huh?

Well, there were several bloggers that noticed the same difference and decided to write Google about it. In his blog today (great minds think alike), Dom Ramsey posits the following:

Personally, I was more inclined to believe the MyBlogLog stats because they’re completely independent - and because my other sites linked from the page in question were also seeing an increase in traffic. It’s difficult to believe these 10,000 or so extra visitors clicked everything except a single Google ad.

Be sure to read the rest of his account. He ended up writing to Google and they repled…basically telling him sorry but there’s really nothing we can do. I found some other insightful posts — Mike Abundo proposes the notion that MBL is Yahoo!’s AdSense Trojan, and Everton Blair at Connected Internet suggests that using MBL could be a violation of Google’s TOS.

I doubt Google would ban thousands upon thousands of MBL subscribers. From what I understand, some blogs realize more discrepancy than others. No doubt Google will hear from them…regardless of whether it’s a difference of 2 or 200. I checked my stats from both again during lunch, and the difference has gone from 17 to 7. I’m sure that’s just lag from AdSense in reporting the clicks. Feel free to share any thoughts or similar issues you’ve had.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Get Your Stocks! Stocks For Sale!

Yesterday, the market was the most green I’ve seen it in awhile. Celebrating St. Patty’s Day a little late there, aren’t we? Well either way, the current condition of the market should be seen as a buying opportunity. It’s not too late. You might call me bullish, but I’m just as cautious with my money as the next investor.

Keep Your Eye On The Ball
The “ball” being fundamentals. Making this suggestion to investors is usually pretty ineffectual. Reading the headlines may translate into…how do you say…thinking too much. Yeah. That. Don’t do that. When I say fundamantals, I mean know the company’s financial condition, be aware of the industry they are in (competition is a stock killer), and determine the company’s value without being concerned about its price. Bottom line: due diligence.

Don’t Panic
Someone like Jim Cramer might say “don’t hesitate”. He’s definitely a “pull the trigger” type of guy (but he has rules…read one of his books), and I like that. Back to the suggestion at hand…don’t panic. Don’t fall into the fast-paced whirlwind that is the stock market. Stay calm, do your due diligence, and pull the trigger. Ok. There I said. All this subprime news caused a huge sell off. To everyone that sold: thanks. Think of this as a stock sale. Many stocks are more valueable than their prices indicate…for now. Many investors are able to buy stocks at the bid right now primarily because they believe the bid is below the market value of that stock. No need to be greedy. Just pay the price it deserves…in today’s market. I’ve heard Warren Buffet analogize buying stocks to paying $20 for a steak one night, and then returning to the restaurant to find out the steak is $15 now. Who complains about that?

Fed Agrees with Derrich.com
Well, not officially, but Fed Chariman, Ben Bernanke, has downplayed the subprime issue from the get go. And rightly so. Look, investors shouldn’t be frightened away from the market. Just guesstimating, there’s no way more than 5% of all mortgages made were subprime loans. I’d bet more than 95% of the mortgages made still boast positive equity. The crappy part is that there is likely to be an increase in lending standards hurting future borrowers to which banks will lend money. (There you go, bears. Are you happy?)

So, get out there and buy some stocks. I suggested a few stocks under $10 last week. I’m just plating seeds here. I’m no licensed investment advisor, but I’ve got some experience and wish to share it. Do with it as you wish…and good luck.

Popularity: 3% [?]

2007 Bloggers Tournament, Take 2

The response I received as a result of the original 2007 Bloggers Tournament was fantastic…and I don’t say “fantastic” alot…really. Based on the comments I received and the emails you sent, I’ve decided to give it a go while using your criticisms and suggestions to make it better. Besides, the NCAA Basketball Tournament is far from over.

The Tournament
This version will include 32 blogs. I didn’t post anything new in the last couple of days because I spent the weekend reading new blogs…among other things. My goal was to find 8 blogs to fill four categories. Initially, similar blogs will battle it out. And the best from each will meet at the end. The seeding system will remain — based on Alexa.com ranking (seed #1 represents the highest ranking) and like the NCAA Basketball Tournament, #1 will play #8, #2 vs. #7, and so on.

The Blogs
After reading through these and several other blogs, I narrowed the playing field down to the following blogs:

• The Gamut
  This is a group of personal blogs or blogs that talk about a little of everything…kinda like derrich.com. Those include [8] The Man of Silver, [7] Krunk4Ever!, [6] Don’t Click This, [5] Mr. Gary Lee, [4] Samanathon.com, [3] the thinking blog, [2] Kineda, [1] lifehacker
• Technology & Gadgets
  [8] FunniestGadgets.com, [7] Home Theater Blog, [6] Gadgetell.com, [5] HipTechBlog, [4] Tech Digest, [3] techeblog.com, [2] Gizmodo, [1] TechCrunch
• Blogging & SEO
  [8] Search Engine Roundtable, [7] HarpzOn.com, [6] thewebmarketingblog.com, [5] Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings, [4] Go2Web2, [3] Blue Hat SEO, [2] Google Blogoscoped, [1] problogger
• Money & Finance
  [8] BullRally, [7] Retire Rich Blog, [6] Stock Trading 101, [5] Generation X Finance, [4] The Bull Trader, [3] StopBuyingCrap.com, [2] Money Smart Life, [1] Get Rich Slowly

Your Vote Counts
Voting for Round 1 will last until Friday, March 23rd when Round 2 begins. Blogs that are participating in the 2007 Bloggers Tournament may earn additional votes simply by linking to this post in one of your posts this week and use anchor text that says “Vote for my blog at Derrich.com” (or something to that effect) and you will receive 5 extra votes, which I will add on to the final poll results. If you want to rub it in your opponent’s face, you may opt to use the “John Chow Rule” and urge your readers to vote for your opponent — they will receive the extra 5 votes instead.

ROUND 1 VOTING HAS ENDED.

For those that think the bottom seeds have no chance, keep in mind that #7 seed CareerRambings.com was the winner of the first tournament. Anything is possible.

Popularity: 17% [?]

BlogRoll

• Milk Was A Bad Choice
• CrackBerry.com
• Stock Trading 101
• For The Love Of Sports
• Project Spurs
• Busted Coverage
• WallStreetFighter

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