About Rober Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the #1 bestselling personal finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad is taking a new approach with his next book. He’s releasing the book, Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money, online — for free. And he’s inviting readers to participate in the writing process.

So it’s worth checking out. But be aware: some powerful criticisms of Kiyosaki have been written that attempt to debunk much of his factual writing. I still think there’s something worth reading if you read between the lines, whatever stance you take on his factual accounts.

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For those of you still mystified how the whole Credit Crunch came about, you can enjoy this little cartoon (I did!) and perhaps you will be a little wiser understanding what happened and why.

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What you got to lose? And if you’re on Entrecard, you will also get 100 EC if you let me know how to send you EC. We’re standing at #97 right now! So, sign up today!

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Your article, "Go Do Your Homework! 3 Simple Techniques to Help Kids Do Homework" – has been accepted and published on EzineArticles.com:
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It won’t really go live for a few hours, so it will be a while before it draws any traffic to the blog. Let’s see what happens. I’m already planning a string of articles for this site, some of which will be written by me, and some by my team of writers headed by Anuj.

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I was transferring a bunch of domains to NameCheap just yesterday when I found that they were offering a coupon with the words “Switch2NC”.

For existing domains that you want to transfer, just use this code with NameCheap to get your domain transferred, a private Whois record, and a whole bunch of extra time added to your domain registration. Don’t know when it expires.

It was advertised for the SuperBowl, but it worked just yesterday. So let me know.

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But still, the thought my eyes were getting worse (or at least the left one) haunted my coffee and my reading. Here’s a problem I’ve had since I was 16 but it’s been stable. Could my eyesight be that poor? So I selected a pair of Rimless Metal Frames with Temples. These come in a Petal Style, which is perhaps a little gaudy for my taste. Of course, I’ll prefer the more conservative brown for the frames.

I don’t usually buy new glasses even with Holiday frames just for a single season. I prefer to own glasses for the longer term, but I already own three pairs of glasses (one old pair, one new pair, and one pair for driving with tints) so it doesn’t seem out of place to own a seasonal pair. There are so many styles of frames and lenses available, at the prices I saw, it would be affordable to buy a new pair for every day of the festive season from Lent to Ephiphany.

As a regular blogger, I do find that I spend a lot more time staring at the monitor of my computers; so it is important to look after my eyes. I would certainly add an anti-reflective coating as well to prevent glare in night driving, and might even help me with the glare from my computer monitor! At $4.95, it wouldn’t add much to the cost, and would seem to be in keeping with these more austere financial times.

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Well, Phone Number Reporting’s new website would like to help you trace those errant and miscreant phone calls… You can enter a phone number that has just rung, find out if there are any others with similar calls, and leave your comments! It seems plenty of people already have. There’s also a link to a reverse phone number lookup service (for which you’ll need an inexpensive subscription).

Sponsored, after all.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed for this blog! Click here…

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It looks like Google is now about to take on Technorati and several other blog aggregators with the revamp. It’s been done to look similar to the NewsGoogle, and will work in a similar fashion to NewsGoogle, taking summaries, images and links from popular blogs all over the web, aggregating the stories and presenting them in an automated fashion as a summary of what’s happening. For top bloggers, and those who are ‘discovered’ this will be a huge boon to their traffic as the service becomes increasingly known. For readers, it makes it easier to find news stories, popular blogs, though it may break or weaken loyalty between readers and ‘their’ blogs. Worth watching, though it didn’t show up much from after September 16th for my blog…

Today, we’re pleased to launch a new homepage for Google blog Search so that you too can browse and discover the most interesting stories in the blogosphere. Adapting some of the technology pioneered by Google News, we’re now showing categories on the left side of the website and organizing the blog posts within those categories into clusters, which are groupings of posts about the same story or event. Grouping them in clusters lets you see the best posts on a story or get a variety of perspectives. When you look within a cluster, you’ll find a collection of the most interesting and recent posts on the topic, along with a timeline graph that shows you how the story is gaining momentum in the blogosphere.

Questions remain: how is a story rated “most interesting”, how are stories ranked or clustered, will spidering occur more often as a website or blog gains ‘momentum’? At what point does a blog become rated “most interesting”, by whom and by what means? Mmm. To read more, visit BlogSearch Blog for the announcement.

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True to form, you will find all the social bells and whistles you need for this online investors’ community called Inner 8 which seeks to bring investors of all kinds together under the following statement “Inner8 technology gives you the best, personalized ideas, and lets you keep the savings“. Given the background of the owners of Inner8, this site should not be underestimated as it tries to bind investors with complex data analysis.

The deal for investors though is quite simple: you connect with investors from a wide range of backgrounds as you all seek to make money trading online, whether it is stocks, bonds, or whatever. There are several pages in which you can interact: Tools and Community.

The tools page is worth playing with: you can simply tweak the controls at the bottom to show what kind of market segments you are interested in, then you will see the results on the right.

The community page is also worth a look to find people online who are investing. There are similar slider controls that you can play with as you search for members to form your community.

Both tools and community pages are works-in-progress as the range of tools are limited, as is the size of the community. But one thing is sure: if Inner8 sticks around long enough, they will be able to develop a focused and passionate group of users. The tools are innovative and promising, as is the community. I’ve already joined, and have filled in a bit of my profile.

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There were stacks of a newish magazine (or at least one I had never heard of) called Making Money Magazine which is primarily about the franchising market in the UK. There are lots of feature articles on all sorts of companies from almost every industry you could imagine, including some very prominent names like BurgerKing, Subway, etc. Their online contact form lists over 400 different franchises. The only problem with the magazine is you can’t read it online, it’s a print-only publication, though the website is quite informative in its own way.

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Enter a review site: WebhostingGeeks.com offers reviews for web hosting as well as ratings for many of the top websites available for hosting and they breakdown the different packages in ways that can help you identify suitable products for your needs.

Can a review site such as this be useful?

While the type of website isn’t particularly new these days, if you are researching a host, positive and negative reviews can be helpful in describing the kind of problems that you will experience with the different hosts. For example, if you are not particularly needing robust hosting, you may wish to go for more budget hosting that has reasonably good uptimes.

Some may legitimately wonder if a website like this can offer impartial advice, and this may or may not be the case. Reading reviews will allow you to have a better review of the site’s editorial policy. Negative reviews, especially, will allow you to see if the editorial is light- or heavy-handed. Check for negative reviews.

As a simple guide to some of the more popular solutions, a site like this may never be able to cover ALL the options out there. Indeed that would be impossible. But it could certainly help steer you in the right direction, provided you realize that these sites are affiliate links, and could earn money for the site-owner.

Some suggestions

Yahoo! hosting generally is not highly regarded, yet it is placed quite high on the list. I’m not sure why. It would also be great if users could submit hosts to the directory so that the list of hosts gets longer. Naturally, with many hosts offering affiliate schemes, it would be easy to generate additional revenues from them. But hosts without affiliate schemes may not be included… It would also be nice to see some easily identifiable disclaimer links such as “…this link is an affiilate link…” or even a disclaimer page.

Overall, it would have saved me quite some time, cut out some of the waste of effort in examining useless sites, and saved me even more money. Pity I found it six months’ too late. Oh, well.

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I was intrigued so I decided to run a number of websites through the grading and came up with some interesting stuff.

This report for JohnChow Dot Com graded his site at 99.6%. While this doesn’t really surprise me, for sites that score lower grades, a comparison can be quite instructive. So I ran my own blog through this site.

So the grade is a little lower, probably because of the fewer Diggs, fewer Bloglines accounts, and the fewer De.licio.us bookmarks. They do provide a download ebook so that you can pick up a few tips, I’m just reading it now. It’s always fun to rate your site and see how it measures, but really the whole blog thing is simply about how much traffic you get anyway. So don’t let this be another Blogging Dead End.

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A friend recently asked me where to start with this personal finance reading, and so it got me thinking: how would I start if I had to start again. In fact, I’d simply choose five better known feeds, and read them for a while. A lot also would depend on the angle… Am I in debt? Am I seeking to invest? Am I trying to make money in business? …

Given his standings, I thought I would choose five good feeds that I read for someone who is a busy, successful teacher with not much time on his hands:

• #1: Simple Dollar (feed)
• #2: Bargaineering (feed)
• #3: MyMoneyBlog (feed)
• #4: Consumerism Commentary (feed)
• #5: … it’s pretty difficult to choose the fifth one.

But you can visit PFBlogs.org to check out the most recent updated blogs and find one of the many good ones listed. (And, no my own blog isn’t listed. Why? I don’t have a clue!)

Do you have a favorite? What would you recommend Alan read? Why?

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What is CreditSaint.com? How does it work?

These days there are any number of credit repair agencies busy beavering away at reducing the debt load of the average American with promises such as free debt settlement. This could be seen as a good thing, but as you would guess, there are any number of services, very little regulation, and quite a large demand. Judging by the prices this company are charging, there seems to be a very lucrative market in arranging and rearranging individuals financial and credit related affairs.

It’s into this crowded market that Credit Saint LLC has entered. Founded in 2004, Credit Saint LLC has been providing a range of credit related services offline to customers. In fact, the Better Business Bureau rates this company as a “BBB Accredited business since 10/23/2007” and notes the original date. So it’s clear that Credit Saint is now trying to expand its market reach by going online.

The Website: Credit Saint Dot Com

A cursory view of the website reveals much about their online strategy: cram as much information into the space as possible, write lots of text, don’t forget to include email, forums, live help, reviews, testimonials, FAQs, programs, appointments, … and so on. Now I’m no expert in credit card related affairs as you’d suspect, but surfing this website, I noticed a number of issues. As an observer and motivated buyer, I’m looking to know three basic things:

• Can I trust this company/website?
• Will they be effective in reducing or helping me control my finances?
• How affordable are they?

So can the website provide this basic information? let’s see…

i. Can I trust this company?

There are a number of ways that a website can take to increase both trust and the appearance of trust: the most obvious being ways to contact with the company in person via phone, email, fax or chat. It’s quite easy to find chat, email and phone numbers, but for a snailmail address, you have to scroll to the bottom of the page. Seems odd but at least it’s there. In addition, there is a Privacy Policy. But I failed to find a number of standard pages: disclosures, TOS, and Sitemap. All of these would help a lot to build trust. There is however a minimal XML sitemap. It was reassuring to see that this company also resorted to using https:// which is the secure way when loading the Get Started page.

This is where I came across the first of the problems with the website: as I clicked through the options to see how responsive the server was I repeatedly got the following 400 Bad Request:

While the error didn’t occur 100% of the time, I found it frequent enough to warrant mentioning in this review. It’s likely that there’s an error in the URLs, which is perhaps the simplest and most common error. However, I couldn’t verify that this is the case. Unfortunately, this is not the only issue that I need to raise. I also found lots of links that don’t work, on the lefthand sidebar, and on other places throughout the website, even simple links back to the ‘homepage’.

Another major error: security seems apparent as I mentioned, but I really wonder. Have they checked or changed the default passwords for their accounts? What about their FTP account? What about the admin account(s)? I’m not so sure.

ii. Will they be effective in reducing or helping me control my finances?

Given the range of offerings that this website has, I’m tempted to say ‘mmm’. Why? For one simple reason, this website tries to do TOO much: it sells (many products) to clients, it sells to affiliates, it manages employees, it handles the client end, and it also has client managers, which suggests that the business is similarly lacking in focus. While this may or may not be true, it’s always going to be the impression that counts, and as objective outsider, I feel that there are just too many things going on in this website to help ME with MY problems, esp. when some of those things don’t work properly.

When a company goes online, it really risks whatever equity it has built up in its reputation. Why? If your site is simply for show, you risk your image if you launch before you’re ready. That’s important enough. But this website has gone live and isn’t ready. It isn’t even really a beta yet, either. And there are problems with its reliability even before it’s taking business. Remember: this is a commercial website, it’s aiming to attract online business. Yet I’m concerned.

iii. How affordable are they?

Taking a look at the charges, I’m surprised how high these charges can be, perhaps that’s because I’ve never used such a service. The base service charges from about $40 per month right up to $99. But I guess when you need things like Collection Removal, Charge Off Removal, Identity Theft Removal, etc.. the money could be worth it as it could save you much more than you’re spending. I do like the fact that the charges are placed upfront, are readable and understandable, and the client can choose an appropriate service for their situation. I think it’s much better for a company to state their charges clearly. Too many websites hide the prices away in the small print if you can find them at all! Whether they are affordable is really upto the client, but as the BBB point out:

Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or no cost. (source: BBB’s BBB Reliability Report for
Credit Saint, LLC)

Of course, we could do a lot of things for ourselves – gardening, cleaning the car, changing the oil – the truth is we feel more comfortable asking someone (an ‘expert’) to mow the lawn, clean the car, change the oil, write our will, … it’s engrained in the modern world. It’s to this market that I think these charges apply, though it would be nice to see more explicit disclosures on the website, especially about commissions gained from recommending products, services, etc..

What do they say about doing things in haste?

Well, if you forgot, take a look at this site: it bears all the marks of a site made in haste and as such, I feel that I can’t particularly recommend clients using this website until it’s ready. If you do decide to use their service, please contact them via their phone. Why? I’ll give you five good reasons:

1. Amateurish and disorganized

The site is very amateurish, really. It’s quite surprising how many things are just not done. The sidebars alone are enough to give you a headache: the links jump about from page to page, many links don’t work (try ‘Disability’ for example) at all, and others take you to error pages. An other example: the contact information is inconsistent throughout, and is all over the place – sometimes you can find a fax number, sometimes you can’t. The address is on the bottom of the page. Where else? And all the time I was online, lunchtime in most states in the US, the live help was OFFLINE! I only once saw someone come online. Another great idea poorly implemented are the forums: why on earth would you add forums hosted on another URL when you can install them on your own URL on a subdomain at little or no extra server cost. You can also theme them similarly, and integrate them far more closely: I’m thinking Joomla and SMF integration here.

2. Design of site

I noted a number of issues that need to be resolved. To improve SEO of the site, I would suggest at least three steps that the webmaster should look at. First, so many of the pages have generic names: index-4.html etc.. This means nothing to man, beast or Google. At least give the URL a real slug so that we can tell what we are looking at. Secondly, none of the pages have any keywords anywhere or the title tag or the description tag. This is an obvious task that needs to be done. Thirdly, there is no proper sitemap. I had a look at the sitemap.xml which really had no information at all. Not surprisingly, since the site has been online since 2006, there are only 2 pages indexed in Google. Of course, having a duplicate site doesn’t help either. An independent site scored this website saying: “The page at creditsaint.com scores 2 out of 5 for its utilization of web technologies which includes analytics, frameworks, syndication and document formatting.” (InvestorBlogger did *much* better – but I KNOW there’s still room for improvement!).

3. Dynamic vs. static

Initially, I thought I was looking at a Joomla site, but I began to suspect that the site was actually coded by hand. So I took a look at the source code. I was shocked to see the entire site is made in tables, including a pagewide table of 742px. Wow! No wonder site optimization is so difficult: the design looks very Web 2.0 but it’s all Web 1.0. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s got accessibility issues as well. But a dynamically generated site would have other advantages such as it makes incorrect links easy to update everywhere, it is easier to integrate forums, payment carts, shopping modules, etc. that are INTEGRATED into the theme more fully, and create an enhanced and themed experience. Right now, this is missing.

Focus, focus, focus.

In summary, this website desperately needs focus. It needs to answer one simple question, and one simple one only: who is the primary market for this website? All the rest can be handled on subdomains or other domains. This would lead to much greater clarity on the designers and make the task much more manageable. As it is, it’s very much a mishmash of ‘handcoded’ pages, forums, e-commerce and guestbooks (what’s with that?), and an unhappy one at that.

I just looked at the original remit for this review, and I noted the remit asked me to include the tagline “Credit Saint removed my ID Theft”, along with four key words: credit repair, credit restoration, free debt settlement, and credit saint. It’s no surprise then that when I searched for Identity Theft on the website, all I found was those two key words and a link that didn’t work.

I was originally asked to do this site as a review. I didn’t intend it to be a full review. I do hope that the webmasters find the comments useful. I’ll be happy to add or edit the content as mistakes come to light, as I’m sure they will.

Update: Though this was intended to be a sponsored ‘review’, Blogsvertise provided no indications of the type of ‘review’ that was required, neither did the advertiser. However, on receipt of this review, it seems that the advertiser doesn’t feel that this review is ‘acceptable’. Blogsvertise asked me to rewrite the ‘review’ and dress it up, but in all honesty, I can’t. I stand by my comments 100%. Please draw your own conclusions about what kind of service this company really offers.

Update 2: I’ve noted that the website has made a number of significant improvements all round, in terms of usability, it’s much simpler to use, much of the dead weight has gone, it’s clear the owners have taken on quite a lot of these suggestions. Good for them.

Update 3: Much of the content of this review is no longer valid. It was written four years ago.

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Here’s the image to whet your appetite! Quite makes me want to revamp my own dull theme!

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In this paid post I look at checking your credit rating through one particular website, and answer one simple question: how easy or difficult is it to do this the first time? Welcome to Ovation Credit Services, a website that specialises in finding and repairing credit reports so that clients get a better deal when they want to purchase that LCD TV or new 4×4!

Finding information

To start this process, let’s see how you would go about finding out about information about credit scoring: Ovation provides extensive learning pages through the menu on the top right including, downloadable books, videos, a glossary, and general information pages. While there’s no mention of the individual credit reporting services, there is a general description of how the websites calculate your actual credit score and the weightings used, the various laws, and general customer queries.

The Website: Speedy, Responsive and Lots of Trust Building

Clicking through the website extensively to provide this review, I noted that the website is responsive, and fast. In fact, the homepage is quite large, but when saved to my disk only showed 257Kb. That size means that the website should load quickly even on slower or dialup connections. Each page loaded smoothly, and I didn’t find any out of date links at all. Moreover, I was surprised at how smooth the website seemed in Firefox. It’s important that websites adequately cover the major browsers, and it’s amazing how many sites don’t even bother with making their site compatible with the #2 browser.

In addition, it was easy to access the Privacy Policy, Disclaimers, Terms and so on, each of these was clearly linked in the footer of the page (which is where I found one non-active link under “Credit News”). The website has gone to a lot of trouble to enhance its reputation and trust with a number of features: including a no-risk refund policy, special deals, BBB credits and links to its record on BBB which is where you find out that the business started in 1976.

Loose Ends: Crowded HomePage and out of date blog

There are also a number of ways to contact the company, including a snail mail address, a telephone number and online chat, all of which add to the impression that this is a solid company with a reputation. However, there are some loose ends, including a blog that seems to be linked to some pages of the website: at Credit Repair Blog. It looks like the blog hasn’t been updated in about a year. Having worked with a blog on a credit card website before, they can be very useful to draw additional traffic and rankings to your main site, and such results can be very effective if the blog is written well. I’d strongly suggest reviving the blog and integrating that to the main site.

I also feel that the frontpage is really trying to do TOO much as there are 15 clickable boxes below the graphic above. I like the way the boxes light up when users mouse over them, but that there is too much there and this suggests perhaps a lack of focus at the moment on exactly WHO is going to use the website. I’d suggest trimming this area to just seven: the five boxes in the first row, the last page wide box, and all the others can be moved to a slideshow area where users click arrows to see the next offer situated where “No Risk Refund” is currently.

And so,…

In conclusion, though this service is not cheap and may not be suitable for all those who need good credit reporting, the website goes to some lengths to create both an impression of trustworthiness and value for money. I’d like to take a look around inside the site and the report areas to see what they have to offer. I’ll be contacting them to find out more. So stay tuned. Sponsored by Ovation Credit Services.

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In this paid post I look at checking your credit rating through one particular website, and answer one simple question: how easy or difficult is it to do this the first time? Welcome to Ovation Credit Services, a website that specialises in finding and repairing credit reports so that clients get a better deal when they want to purchase that LCD TV or new 4×4!

Finding information

To start this process, let’s see how you would go about finding out about information about credit scoring: Ovation provides extensive learning pages through the menu on the top right including, downloadable books, videos, a glossary, and general information pages. While there’s no mention of the individual credit reporting services, there is a general description of how the websites calculate your actual credit score and the weightings used, the various laws, and general customer queries.

The Website: Speedy, Responsive and Lots of Trust Building

Clicking through the website extensively to provide this review, I noted that the website is responsive, and fast. In fact, the homepage is quite large, but when saved to my disk only showed 257Kb. That size means that the website should load quickly even on slower or dialup connections. Each page loaded smoothly, and I didn’t find any out of date links at all. Moreover, I was surprised at how smooth the website seemed in Firefox. It’s important that websites adequately cover the major browsers, and it’s amazing how many sites don’t even bother with making their site compatible with the #2 browser.

In addition, it was easy to access the Privacy Policy, Disclaimers, Terms and so on, each of these was clearly linked in the footer of the page (which is where I found one non-active link under “Credit News”). The website has gone to a lot of trouble to enhance its reputation and trust with a number of features: including a no-risk refund policy, special deals, BBB credits and links to its record on BBB which is where you find out that the business started in 1976.

Loose Ends: Crowded HomePage and out of date blog

There are also a number of ways to contact the company, including a snail mail address, a telephone number and online chat, all of which add to the impression that this is a solid company with a reputation. However, there are some loose ends, including a blog that seems to be linked to some pages of the website: at Credit Repair Blog. It looks like the blog hasn’t been updated in about a year. Having worked with a blog on a credit card website before, they can be very useful to draw additional traffic and rankings to your main site, and such results can be very effective if the blog is written well. I’d strongly suggest reviving the blog and integrating that to the main site.

I also feel that the frontpage is really trying to do TOO much as there are 15 clickable boxes below the graphic above. I like the way the boxes light up when users mouse over them, but that there is too much there and this suggests perhaps a lack of focus at the moment on exactly WHO is going to use the website. I’d suggest trimming this area to just seven: the five boxes in the first row, the last page wide box, and all the others can be moved to a slideshow area where users click arrows to see the next offer situated where “No Risk Refund” is currently.

And so,…

In conclusion, though this service is not cheap and may not be suitable for all those who need good credit reporting, the website goes to some lengths to create both an impression of trustworthiness and value for money. I’d like to take a look around inside the site and the report areas to see what they have to offer. I’ll be contacting them to find out more. So stay tuned.

Sponsored by Ovation Credit Services.

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Of course, reading up on such things beforehand is always going to be nearly as good as 20/20 hindsight, and web hosting tutorials are always helpful! A good ratings site can help but you need to find one that offers unbiased, detailed, and critical reviews to help you decide which host is appropriate for you.

These are five things you will need to remember that I wished I had known five years ago when I started looking…

• 1. Be sensible in your expectations: Don’t choose plans that offer unlimited everything (usually something will not work so well, and it could be crucial to you). It’s better to purchase a plan with clear limits so that you know when you are approaching those limits without unduly taxing the shared server, and drawing the attention of your webhosting admin who asks you to upgrade or close your account.
• 2. Find a responsive company. I approached a well-known company with a sales query that took three days and a follow-up email to persuade them to answer my ticket. Can you imagine how long it might take them to get my server working again, if it was out? So give the likely candidate a quiz.
• 3. Choose several companies: If you are hosting several sites, choose several hosting companies so that you can compare and contrast the features, support, and stability. It might cost a little more at the outset, but it is something I wished I had done. Split the sites up initially. When you figure which host is better, then use that host for the more important websites.
• 4. Find a coupon: When you sign up for many webhosts, you will often see the place for a coupon code. Use it. You can save a truckload of cash on many hosting companies for the first year. This will help ease your financial burden as you try out the different hosting companies. Of course, the really cheap sites may not have any coupons because the deals are just spectacular.
• 5. Find a GOOD host: Cheap hosting can be good, expensive hosting can be good, too – if the hosting company is good. Finding a good host is more difficult than finding either an expensive or a cheap host. Both ends of the market include companies that have terrible reputations.

Of course, you could just go to a good review site for your initial overview of the market. You’ll find many of the top hosts listed there once the site formally launches.

This post was originally to be sponsored but unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to the required non-disclosure that the advertiser wanted, as a result I’m now removing all the links. Steve who was talking to me a few months ago about this was quite ‘shocked’ at the quality of most review sites for other products, filled with spurious reviews, and testimonials. Since he was also looking for good hosting, he is quite skeptical about the value of 99% of the hosting websites out there. Perhaps he is right.

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This week I’ve had to troubleshoot at least three technical problems, each of which needed a competent computer technical support service! My Flickr upload software was crashing my PC, or at least I thought so… Turned out to be the heat overheating my CPU fan… Then I had to install the tax filing software… except it wouldn’t install on ANY of my nine machines, even with the most recent updates of Windows XP; and now one of my home PCs is slow booting, and I don’t know why. On top of that, two machines need new CPU batteries to help keep the time… Oh, and don’t get me started on the Anti-Virus software situation, now.

This is when I wish I had a good company on call, esp. as we usually have to fix problems on the two days of the week when we are the hardest pressed for time: Wednesdays and Fridays. Of course, as a small business, we don’t have access to the IT departments and big budgets of large companies… we pretty much have to Jacks of all Trades.

So it would be nice to have a company on hand that can provide prompt, professional, affordable and convenient service on your doorstep (esp. as we work odd hours). Am I dreaming? Perhaps not…

Who do you call when your PC craps out?

• Your wife/husband/tech partner…
• Your PC salesperson…
• Your personal life guru…
• Your 17-year-old…

Fast-Teks brought you this post… but I brought you the stories!

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When I first started online publishing, I remember slaving for hours over the HTML, trying to get documents that at least looked consistent. It was a nightmare. Then I tried Mambo (as it was then) now Joomla. I was impressed by the power, the flexibility and the sheer variety of mods. But I was also bemused: it just needed too much juice to do the long articles I had. So I was stuck doing HTML pages for a long time.

I liked Joomla/Mambo but couldn’t find a use for it myself, and it took much too long to do anything simple, esp. on a standard webhosting plan – a shared server. I never consided using it for a blog which is what Blog @ MaguireClan has done!

I am surprised at how far TimeShadowRider managed to develop the implementation of Joomla, including a blog, a forum, stores, and quite a few other features… I wonder how long it took to do all that! But I found that there are a number of limitations that bother me: 1. the site seems a little slow and uneven in download speed; 2. the overall theme/design just isn’t the best, some elements don’t show properly, links don’t work properly all the time, and iframes contents don’t usually match the theme; and 3. bullet points are in the wrong positions for some elements and lists.

I’m curious to know also why TSR didn’t install the WordPress Joomla integration (which has been around for a while) which would have solved some of the problems that the blog has. There are also options to install MojoBlog. Personally, with WP getting more and more powerful, lighter than Joomla on its server resources, and well-supported, nearly everything you had on the site could have been done in WordPress. I’m sorry but Joomla just doesn’t make a good choice for blogging at the moment. But kudos for trying! I would recommend switching though, as I think you’ll find WordPress more satisfying in the long run. Just my 2c.

If you’d like a buzz, head on over to my BlogBuzz campaign, write your review and buzz me!

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In 2007, I started doing a few BlogBuzzes for people, and in 2008 I am continuing my BlogBuzz. You’ll see it is a great way to advertise your blog around the net, and I get my blog seen on your blog… If you’re still interested, drop me a line in the contact form. Do complete the opp first. The buzzes can be short or long, but at least a minimum of 50 words, please!

Yes, it’s time for a BlogBuzz. This time I’m doing it for one of my own blogs:

Actually, most of the content at Obblogatory was originally found at this blog, but I moved it over in 2006 when I decided to refound the whole InvestorBlogger thing. Of course, little did I know what a PR5 meant at that time, and how moving the blog would blow the entire thing up in my face! Oh, well. Such are regrets.

Well, Obblogatory is a general blog with categories as wide ranging as Taiwan, Entertainment, blogging, Shopping and much more… it’s fun to write and I have no expectations it will ever be high profile like this one. But I enjoy writing it. Despite that, I know that there are a lot of improvements I could make:

• 1. Change that header image: I have no way for people to know what the blog’s name is!
• 2. The side bar is a real mess: I have reorganized it several times, and it’s still a mess. Worse: it leaves out important stuff!
• 3. I use almost no SEO stuff at all apart from the friendly URLs… I really have to use tags, summaries and much more. One day, I’ll get around to fixing that.

They say your worst critic is in the mirror, and that’s true! Oh, well. Anyway, if you fancy a more general blog on other stuff, that’s the one! Check it out!

And that’s it for blog Buzz #11! Drop me a line if you want one! I’ve got two more in the pipeline right now!

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Well, after the disaster of number #7, I’ve decided to regroup and start doing buzzes again. … If you’re still interested, drop me a line in the contact form. Do complete the opp first. The buzzes can be short or long, but at least a minimum of 50 words, please!

My Little Corner is Buzz Number 8 on my list! Welcome to this Buzz and let’s take a look at your blog. I love the great color scheme on this blog, the pastels are quite attractive to my eyes! I tried to visit the blog theme designer you linked in the footer!

I like buzzing new blogs, it’s always exciting to see what new blogs are about. I’m thinking that this blog is going to become a general blog. There aren’t many posts in the archive yet, but the categories are intriguing: beauty, business, money, government, love… I’ve got three good suggestions for you, Diana!

• Change your permalinks so that they show full titles;
• Cut down your 20 categories to less than half a dozen soon (it’ll help to find your blog focus!);
• Merge some of your categories: volunteerism vs. charity, government vs. politics, and so on!

Keep up the blogging, and I look forward to your request for a buzz in 2009! Who knows, you may not even need it! That’s it for Buzz #8. I think I managed to hit more than one blog on that buzz! If you are interested, just read about the buzz and drop me a line!

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If you’re looking for a lot of help, a great computer at a great price, check out his profile and posts on Forumosa and give him a call! Thanks, Nam!

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We’ve already had a bunch of Buzzes handed out to great bloggers… If you’re still interested, drop me a line in the contact form. Do complete the opp first. The buzzes can be short or long, but at least a minimum of 50 words, please!

Karen’s Opinion is Buzz Number 5 on my list! Welcome to this Buzz and let’s take a look at your blog.

In fact, I already buzzed one of Karen’s blogs last year, if you remember. Karen is an avid blogger and authors at least three blogs that I know of, perhaps more! Her chosen topics are more suited to a general blog where the blog reflects the interests of the author, rather than a niche blog. In many ways, it’s similar to one of my own blog’s style (like Investorblogger used to be). Here are some of her chosen areas that are of likely interest to my own readers: Blogging and computers, Entertainment Movies Arts Books, Food, Our Business, our home, a work in progress and Travel. You can also visit their business website at MosersFloorCoverings. I tried to get an appointment for our house in Taipei, but they said it was out of their business area… Well, imagine that! Those floor coverings do look good.

That’s it for Buzz #5. I think I managed to hit more than one blog on that buzz! If you are interested, just read about the buzz and drop me a line!

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We’re already upto number 3! Let’s welcome Mum’s Finance…

Venus who is the blogger at Mum’s Finance wrong me a lovely long buzz! I had promised it for yesterday, but one of my friend’s got his picture in the news here, so I held it over to boost his blog!

Anyway, Mum’s Finance covers a wider range of topics than I had expected, including bank accounts, making money, property, general finance, and even shopping. Here are some of the posts that caught my attention!

• People who win it all then lose it which looks at how people handle lottery winnings;
• Want to buy a house? start saving the deposit – talks about how people are now saving to buy a house!
• Is this the finish of the European housing boom? – another look at the excesses of the property boom in Europe

I must confess, I may pass on the lingerie posts though!

If you’d like to be featured, get yourself a buzz from InvestorBlogger’s new series of BlogBuzzes before they’re all gone!

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In 2006, Craig contacted me about helping him host his website and gallery. With the changes at Flickr, this is looking like a smart move on his part… esp. if Microsoft get their hands on Flickr. They’ll surely kill it, just as they destroyed HoTMaiL.

Since then he’s been building his gallery with lots of wonderful pictures. He tried Gallery, then PixelPost before settling on CopperMine in the current configuration. Since the addition of his blog, his traffic has been building gradually as people find his website and gallery. He regularly asks for advice and suggestions on his blog, plugins, themes, and stuff. It’s fun to see how he builds his blog a little every day.

So, it was great to see that he’d been published in a local newspaper (hey, all publicity helps!)

I’m sure he’ll be tickled pink when he sees the Google News page in Chinese… He’s there, too!

The article roughly says that Mr. Ferguson has been involved in activities of the Tachia Matsu Festival for four years and that he is quite interested in religious activities here, including “the surging crowds, the beautiful temple architecture, the tour of inspection ceremony, puppet shows and even special performers and performing groups” all of which he captures on his camera. The photographs are delicate, moving and accurate representations for the events. (Sorry for my poor translation skills!).

Way to go! Pity you didn’t mention your website! Oh, well there’s always next time!

Some recent posts from Craig’s blog

• Partying with the Blues after the results of Taiwan’s election;
• Mazu Madness on the recent trip of Matzu to the island (an annual event!);
• Tour de Taiwan 2008 – Stage 8 – highlighing Taiwan’s rediscovery of the bicycle; and
• Lightroom 2.0 beta – looking at what’s new and a Tech related post for those looking for digital imaging software.

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Of course, not everyone is as shrewd as the blog owner of Is 8 Enough as she grabbed the very first slot! Well done! This blog is brightly colored and quite attractively so. The author lives in the US, and she writes of herself:

“I am a 40 year old SAH Wife (of 18 years), Mother of 8 (ages 21-1), and Grandmother of 1 and eagerly anticipating grandbaby #2. I enjoy cooking and baking, sewing and quilting, painting, gardening, reading, digiscrapping, surfing the ‘net, organizing, and hanging out with my family.”

I was going to link to some good categories, but I noted that there are none on the blog! Woops! The posts are clearly categorized, but then I noted she wasn’t using proper permalinks, it’s all the standard WordPress formatting. Both of these made it difficult to find posts that weren’t on the front page. She does have a General Stuff category, though. Nor is there a search box… so readers have to know the WordPress search syntax! I did enjoy the posts about Grandfather Clocks and the CuisinArt Food Processor.

I’d be inclined to fix these pretty fast! Otherwise browsing your blog is pretty difficult! Good luck on your blog and keep in touch!

And if you are looking for a buzz, do find your way to the buzz page! There are only 28 slots left in 2008′s program! So what are you waiting for?

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photo credit: Paul Worthington

Worse, much of the information that I need to write down just doesn’t fit into conventional boxes, checklists and diary entries. In fact, I loathe much of what passes for ‘productivity products’. The lines frustrate me at times with their generosity, at others with their limitations… So it’s a tough challenge for a product like this – to convince me that it offers anything like the flexibility I might need…

Well, Journyx claims to have found a solution to this problem putting things on the web as a way to manage your Online Time and Expense . As a skeptical user of diaries, journals and weblogs, I am remaining unconvinced… Fortunately, for users who are as disorganized as I am, Journyx is offering its product as a free download for you to try out. I’m always a sucker for these kinds of deals.

While I’m downloading the software right now… I’ll add a little more about this companies product:

Journyx Timesheetâ„¢ is a timesheet and expense management solution for the entire enterprise. Any company that bills for its services, performs project-oriented work, or tracks absences for a professional workforce can benefit from Timesheet. You can easily manage employee timesheets and expenses for project control, customer invoicing, and payroll automation with Timesheet. Journyx Timesheet is the foundation of the Journyx P5 Protocolâ„¢, your path to Per-person, Per-project Profitability.

Ok. After a few niggles filling out their form, it’s now downloading but slowly!… I guess I’ll have to leave the review till next time…

In our school, I think we could probably use some of the functionality without much alteration, such as timesheets and expense tools. Our expense requirements would be quite simple to manage. The big plus would be to deal with appropriate customer invoicing as currently this is a time intensive and mistake ridden process that challenges even the more detail oriented individual, not to mention some scatterbrains like myself.

Now I’ve got to have a look at the software… more tomorrow.

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• My Adventures into The Street
• State of Confusion
• Summer Breeze in PA
• Mummified x 5
• Christmas Maps
• LisaReviews

(If I forgot you, I apologize, but I didn’t keep a complete list!)

The campaign details are simple:

* 1. just write 50 words about InvestorBlogger (this blog) in your blog and
* 2. link to one or two specific posts in my blog (you can choose!)!
* 3. don’t forget to link to the BlogBuzz page here!
* 4. then just contact me via the form on this page!

It’s THAT Easy!

There are only 30 slots for the blog buzz over the month! But I’ll be looking for other ways to help bloggers, old and new get publicity for their blog! so Stay Tuned! Some slots will be from the SocialSpark equivalent program, others will be from this blog.

Once you drop me a note courtesy of my contact form, with the link to your blog buzz; I’ll get to work! Expect your blogbuzz in about 24-48 hours or do a comment in this thread, and I’ll check out your website post (hey, some traffic!), then I’ll look for something to blog about! And I’ll throw in a JPEG screenshot!

The Buzz is open until May 31st at the latest! So what’s holding you back!?

Buzzes Done or in the works!

1. Blog Buzz! is 8 enough?
2. Buzz: Craig is in the News!
3. Mums Finance pending!
4. We all need a little buzz
5. My Opinion Counts pending!
6. Buzz: Our Computer Guy
7. Strategist.co.uk – How to run a Scraper blog!

Pending

8. http://blog.maguireclan.net/

Get them in now, there are only 22 more to go!

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#1: AnyCredit Car Finance recently joined InvestorBlogger Dot Com by purchasing advertising from us.

AnyCreditFinance provides “Car loans to suit you”, as advertised on its website, for the UK market. Their products include car loans, payment protection and car insurance. It might be worth checking them out before you purchase your car, at the very least to see how well their deals compare with other deals you can find. On the website front, it’s a nicely laid out website, with good graphics, a nice web 2.0 feel, and quite responsive servers. It would be nice to see features that encourage drivers and car purchasers to come back: forums, a blog perhaps, and social web* awareness.

(ed. added ‘web’ to clarify the meaning).

#2: UrgentCashLoan has been with us for a few weeks now.

UrgentCashLoan is a website that aims to provide payday loans online to US markets for those who need such a service. They differentiate themselves from other more informal lending by saying “visiting your local pawn shop or borrowing money from friends and family”. Such payday services are becoming increasingly common online, so it’s clear that there is a ready market for such services, whatever one thinks. Despite the high interest rates, the loans are usually for short periods. UrgentCashLoan provides services from a number of related companies.

Disclaimer: InvestorBlogger has received compensation from these companies for advertising, but does not intend to provide readers with advice particular to your own situation. Before you use any companies mentioned in our postings, consider your own situation carefully. You should also find an independent financial adviser to discuss the details of any loan, investment, credit card decisions, etc. that you make.

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A few enterprising individuals, headed by Mr. He (screen name!) and under the aegis of Forumosa Entrepreneurship Meeting, got together at 12:00pm on Sunday March 19th 2008 to discuss amongst other things setting up companies in Taiwan.

Six or seven of us showed up for the meeting, Steve from Agentschat.com, Eric, Patrick and Karen from EnglishGear, Yours Truly, and our fearless leader, Mr. He, whose business card I seriously lost. Though I was a little late, we all eagerly devoured our various rather tasty food supplied by Carnegie’s in Taipei.

Topics covered were wide ranging, and I’m hoping that from this little buzz on InvestorBlogger dot com that others will be encouraged to attend, share with the group their entrepreneurial plans, and have a good ol’fashioned chinwag. If you’re in Taipei, do drop by the Forumosa.com forums, especially Business & Money to find out when the next one is!

And, next time I’ll definitely keep good minutes and take piccies to share!

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Despite having a sluggish connection, the music quality sounds that much brighter in higher definitions. I can listen in mp3 streams upto 192Kb, and in AAC upto 64KB.

This is what I’m listening to right now. Oddly I am listening in Windows Media formats at it is now playing the best and most stably. I usually prefer AAC or MP3 at a higher bit-rate on Winamp or XMPlayer.

It’s really nice. I WILL be signing up for the full service soon! It’s only $4.95 a month, and combined with my Emusic account, it’s pretty much the only legal way for me to download music. I don’t download illegal music at all! Guess that’s nearly NT$8000 that the BIG record companies won’t be earning from me!

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PayU2Blog is a website that is entering the blog marketing sphere as a vehicle for advertisers to reach out via blog advertising (links, video, etc.) to a broad readership across the 100 million blogs out there. You can read more about their business in the advertiser FAQ.

Initial Concerns

When PayU2Blog first came out, I was approached by Derek Noble about using this blog for sponsored links. The discussion was quite interesting and I was initially curious about their linking system but having worked so extensively with PayPerPost, I had several concerns that hindered me from working with PayU2Blog on this blog. These boilded down to three concerns at the time. This post is a considered reflection of whether these concerns were justified or not:

• 1. That I couldn’t reveal the sponsored nature of the link;
• 2. That I couldn’t pick and choose assignments; and
• 3. That payment was fixed for each and every link at $5.00.

Is it sponsored?

The biggest concern initially was the first issue – I didn’t believe that I should hide the sponsored nature of the links. Of course, I also felt that some links would have been totally inappropriate on this blog, such as drug rehab centers.

Recently, though, I have signed up under another blog; and I’m working through some assignments even as I type now. I wanted to see how the actual system worked; what the assignments are like; and how prompt payment is. So far, I’ve been impressed. It’s quite a different methodology from PayPerPost, quite different.

The sponsors are paying, not for the post, but for the LINK! That means, within reason, you have a lot more freedom to write the content of the post, and you can choose the perspective. For example, on one post that required a link to an alcohol rehab center, I was able to ramble on about something that happened to me during Chinese New Year, as well as punishments for drunk drivers. I enjoyed writing the post, and I found the challenge interesting.

I still feel now that it would be better if the link relationship were properly disclosed, but it seems that in a post with several links, it might be difficult to highlight the sponsored link without making the others seem out of place.

Picking or choosing?

So far I’ve had to write about some tricky topics, but I must say I find it harder to write when the blog is a general blog (like my other one is), but on a business or investing blog, if all else fails, I could simply write about the industry itself, such as the industry for rehab centers. That would be interesting. And it would provide a different perspective to most of the posts.

But it’s true – in the TOS, Derek was upfront (thankfully) in informing me that

1.You HAVE to AGREE to Link to (within your articles) any assigned subject. This is a requirement. If your blog has a standard theme and you do not want to include posts with links to other topics, then I’m sorry, our projects are not for you. You can link creatively but the links need to be there in order to be paid.

At the time, I didn’t appreciate the subtleties of their system and the freedom that bloggers in their system typically have, so I simply turned them down for this blog. Looking back, I still think that this was the best decision. But now I’ve been working for their system for a while, I can see why it might not have been so bad. A further answer clarified their position (in their FAQ):

Do I have to endorse the product or service that I receive as an assignment?

Not necessarily – your job when completing assignments – is to relate to the assignment(s); by personal experience, personal knowledge, personal research, personal creativity etc. Unfortunately, no negative postings are allowed.

So, while you wouldn’t write a negative posting ABOUT the link, you can write indirectly about the link and relate it to your post. That is something bloggers regularly do. So you can avoid endorsing a product somewhat. Some bloggers would say that linking is a form of endorsement, but I’d find that hard to believe, as bloggers do typically link to websites that aren’t being endorsed. Anyone think political campaigns?

$5.00 and not a penny more?

I’ve been in their system for a while, and I haven’t seen any opps for more than $5 yet. That is likely due to the poor PR ranking of my other blog, and something that isn’t likely to change any time soon. A single link for $5.00 isn’t a bad deal, but it’s true: other companies that offer paid links at the foot of posts do pay more. TLA for example, offers a scaleable rate BUT there are certain criteria that each page needs to meet before it can be accepted into the pagelink program. I haven’t managed to get many pages into that program, due to the poor PR of the blog concerned. Also, the placement of the link is quite different, too.

While PayPerPost offers are generally better than this, they do typically require more on the part of the blogger: often a buzz or review is required; and that sometimes has to be a POSITIVE buzz; there are also additional requirements (from 50 words, multiple links, jpegs, PayPerCost code(s), etc.). PayU2Blog seems to offer a much simpler solution for the blogger. Perhaps that is the upside of the lower payment. Less fuss, less muss.

PayU2Blog: Worth trying

Overall, I’d recommend PayU2Blog quite highly; but they don’t accept every blog or every blogger, so it might take a few tries to get accepted; they DO prefer more general blogs as very specific blogs might have issues with certain kinds of links; and it took a while for my blog to show up in the system properly.

Disclaimer: I’m a blogger that uses PayU2Blog on one of my other blogs, and I have accepted assignments from them before. There are no affiliates in this post, and this post is merely my own experiences. It is NOT sponsored.

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The winner from last week’s competition about TaiChung is Michael Turton who guessed correctly that I was taking the picture from the 25th floor of the Splendor Hotel in Taichung. We actually stayed in the more affordable rooms on the other side of the main entrance, but we both like the hotel and the rooms quite a lot, especially for its location.

The competition itself attracted a bunch of entries, with floors ranging from 25th to 70th and even 80th floor! One of the nice points about Taichung though is that it isn’t really a high-rise city yet, so many of the guesses were overly ambitious! Sorry, guys! When we came back from Taichung, the north of the island was plunged into the Taiwanese equivalent of the Big Freeze, the BIG CHILL. Temperatures in Tamsui where we live have plunged from pleasant mid-teens to 6~8C in the last few days.

Oh, well. I just hope that Michael forgives any splling mstakes as my frozen finggers strugggle over the keyboarrd.

The View From Taiwan

The blog is simply the view of one Michael Turton who has lived in Taiwan for many years. It was difficult to find much biographical information about Michael himself. But I did find a picture of him! So, if you see him on the streets of Taichung, say hello from Kenneth!

The primary blog that he runs is The View From Taiwan supplemented by other HTML pages that can be found on his own website, named www.michaelturton.com. The View blog is full of posts that explore life in Taiwan: Politics, Society, History, Economics, etc. His posts are always well informed, well-written, and interesting reading for those of you interested in Taiwan in many ways. I also love the way his posts always contain large numbers of photos: he has quite an eye for catching simple things and focusing on them in such a way that they becoming interesting – his blog, Flickr, and HTML sites are all replete with photos taken with one of his three cameras. Also, the sidebar is a tremendous resource of blogs and photoblogs, most of which are related to Taiwan. It’s quite a wonderful resource.

The Challenge: blogger’s limitations

The challenge that Michael faces is mostly blogger itself. blogger’s interface, presentation and theme limitations all impede the appearance of an otherwise excellent blog. While the themes aren’t particularly ugly in blogger/Blogspot, out in the world of self-hosted blogs the options for improving presentation are just THAT much greater. There are plugins and themes that can turn his blog into a full CMS system or even simply the unruly first page. But given the size and depth of his blog, migration to a non-blogger system would likely prove to be a HUGE headache in itself.

I will instead offer three suggestions that Michael can use if he wishes:

1. Usability: Trim the length and size of your first page on your blog. I saved the page to my desktop and was shocked by the size: it’s 8MB of files. Cut it down by at least 90% so that pages load for people who don’t have such speedy connections. Can you imagine how long the page would take to load on DialUp? So, you need to cut the number of posts to five longish posts or ten medium size posts (a rule of thumb!). I’ll lay odds that your page views are VERY limited possibly only 1.x or similar. In other words, the length of text of the first page is a huge turn off, and you provide little or no means by which people can click through to other pages.

2. Navigation: With so many posts on the front page, navigation, focus and depth become serious issues. Users can’t click on a single post title entry easily or obviously to read a post (I had to click on comments or links to get to a specific post). Navigation by mouse is clumsy even at the best of times, but today I have frozen fingers; and I find it really a burden to have to click and drag, or use the roller in the middle of the mouse, even clicking on the sidebar in the window means that scrolling isn’t smooth particularly and at times you miss important stuff as you skip quickly down the page. With so many posts on one page (is it 25?), it’s difficult for the reader to find the most important posts, the most popular posts, or the posts with most comments. In fact, it’s difficult to find out what the blogger thinks is important. In many ways, it resembles a street market in Taiwan – it takes time to wander through as you search for the fresh, the most delicious, the best value or the newest produce. But it doesn’t make shopping easy. There is a full-archive date by date; as well the archive is topically (and manually) organized. One of the archive links doesn’t seem to work. But a CMS or WordPress platform would make such management much simpler and more effective to the archive problem and help keep the archive uptodate.

3. Sidebar: The sidebar displays the same problem as the main posts column: too much, too disorganized (from a navigation point of view), and clicking on the shortcuts at the top (it works well) takes you to the sidebar area you want to go, but (BUT) there is no way to go back except by scrolling or hitting the back button. It would be much better to offer a separate page or pages with the same information and extract random sites for posting on the front page. With so much information on the sidebar, should he shorten his frontpage to five posts or even ten, then using a double sidebar on the right might be a good solution to the overhang!

Wonderful resource: needs an overhaul

Overall, Michael’s blog is a rip-roaring success with wonderful photos, detailed posts, and good writing. He’s cracked the hard part of blogging: the content. But his blog is in need of an overhaul: one that will improve the design, making his blogging easier and help his readers tremendously. At the very least, he should consider a new blogger theme, even if he doesn’t want to change the CMS he is using (blogger), especially one that makes navigation easier for readers. And it’s been a privilege to write a review of his blog. Thanks, Michael. And when I’m in Taichung next time, I will look you up!

To my readers, if you are interested in knowing about Taiwan, reading about its culture or politics or you would like to come here to live or travel around the island, Michael’s website and blog both will provide you a lot of what you will need to know. And if he can’t, one of the blogs, forums, websites or resources he has linked to WILL likely have the answer you need! Now, my fingers are frozen. …

Addenda: I will add any missing information here.

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The DEAL: USA Players Welcome

The deal with websites that review online casinos is that they provide links, and basic information about online casinos that gamblers can visit, register, and play. USA Online Casinos provides all of that and more: the comprehensive database is there for visitors to access the online casino guide, and the information is tucked away all over the place; in addition, there are tons of links via advertisements to other advertised websites, as well as sites officially in the database. Additionally, visitors can find which casinos offer “large bonuses, and free no deposit bonuses.” That’s the purpose of the site, I guess.

The Website: 90′s, detailed and disorganized

The website at first appearance looks very busy, but thankfully its structure is relatively simple for new visitors (if not a little confusing at times). The sidebar on the left links to a number of other pages in the website, and a number of offsite links, as well as a number of ads jpegs that add visual impact.

The center and main column is several large tables (who uses page-sized tables these days?) that provides a selection of information about each online casino: its name, the sign-up bonus, currency information, the type of gaming software, and a review. Clicking through to the review, in fact, does not provide a balanced review, more a summary of information about each casino: games, software, payment facilities, and contact information. There is no actual ‘review’ as such.

Also, I can’t decide whether links are links to pages AT the website, or affiliate links, or advertisement links. Confusing to me, though perhaps visitors who come back to the site navigate it more easily than I. Truthfully, with such 90′s appeal, it would be hard to imagine that there was much return traffic.

Suggestions: Dynamic, Clear, Pageviews, Transparency, and Community

I struggled to find any real informative pages to link to, so I’m unable to provide any links to other pages in the website. Worse, I was able to find several links that were dead: Bingo, and Slots. And this highlights one of the major problems with manually maintaining a tradition HTML website: it’s difficult to make sure that all the links are working without actually testing them all. There are tools to do this, but I’m all in favor of add the link once, and let the system take care of the rest. So here are my list of five suggestions:

• Port the entire site over to a dynamically driven site: using something like TopSites or similar (GPL) software, and enter the entire database you have into the TopSites database. Why? Because administering the database will become significantly easier, adding new themes, mods, and multi-lingual variations. You will be able to give the website any theme you like, update it quickly, modify it as you wish, and generally make your website much more 21st century appealing.
• Clarify, refine and reorganize: the listing seems clearer but the left sidebar is a mess. Visitors don’t know which pages are links to internal pages, external links, or advertisements. While you may feel that avoiding clarifying which is which makes better sales, it doesn’t help to build a regular audience, nor create trust with your readers.
• Increase pageviews: don’t put all the information on one page or two. While you need to make the information much easier to access (see sidebar comments), you don’t need to layout the entire database on the first page. At the most place 10 or 20 reviews on one page. This will encourage visitors to click around more. Also, with easier navigation on the sidebar, visitors will find it much easier to click away and come back.
• Increase transparency: What’s not apparent to many visitors is that most of the links (if not all) are affiliate links, in other words, you are earning money (nothing to be ashamed of!); but you do need to have a page of information that tells visitors that this is what you are doing. Also, adding an about page, a disclaimer, a privacy policy (if needed) and even a contact page, all will help make it easier for people to find out who you are, ask questions, purchase more advertising, etc.. Most importantly, it will build TRUST with your visitors, whoever they are.
• Increase community: by adding some feedback features such as a community forum, a blog with comments enabled, even just a contact form, you will help to increase people’s motivation to return to your online casino. By increasing your community, you will increase your own standing, your PR (currently just three), and your traffic (Alexa: 1.8 million) as visitors will RETURN. I’m pretty sure your bounce rate is pretty high – oh wait, what are you using to track your statistics? It’s certainly not Analytics.

In reviewing this website, the heyday of the online 90′s was brought back to me: and it was fun to remember those exciting times, when large tables, static websites, and garish colors were all the rage. But this is the 21st century, and much has changed in the online world: some of it making webmaster’s jobs easier (dynamic sites, easily modified themes, web 2.0) and some of it making our jobs a little harder (SEO, web 2.0, and greater visitor expectations). After looking at USA Online Casinos, I can only be thankful the InterWeb has moved on.

Isn’t it time USAPlayersWelcome did the same?

This post was a paid review of the website, though the opinions expressed are entirely the blogger’s own.

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The first buzz is for StreamingQuotes. Streamingquotes offers financial information as well as trading options for institutional and private clients. Such useful information includes financial numbers, stock charts , Stock Market Ticker and news.

Do let us know how you rate the site. I’ve already checked it out for current Google pricing. And it works responsively using Java.

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If you are interested in advertising on InvestorBlogger, do check out the advertising page for more information, and contact me.

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I can’t help wishing that things were a little easier than that nowadays. In some ways, they are. You type your entire thesis or book or whatever into your document, then save it on your hard disk. Turn off your computer and go do something else.

When you’re ready to continue, turn on your pc…. Oh, it’s not booting. Well, try again. … beep beep beep … Black screen.

Thoughts shoot through your head: what am I going to do? The deadline is next Monday. Of course, you DID save that back up copy somewhere else, didn’t you? Didn’t you? Oh, you didn’t. Even if you did, if you’re like me, the data backup process is messy, uneven and disorganized. I may not even have the most recent version!

Has this happened to you? Well, this story is repeated many times these days.

Read this story:

“…my father was compiling, for the past three years, research, which he had worked on for the past 20 years“, says Charlie Ha, when his hard disk unexpectedly died…” Read more about what happened to Charlie Ha’s father.

That’s when you need a good data recovery service to help you restore what you SHOULD HAVE backed up, but didn’t. These days you may even have put your critical files on removable media and then had it damaged.

Data Recovery from Flashback Data aims to help you with a wide range of accidents: including different types of pcs, many OSes (including Linux), many types of media, and much more. It’s worth reading the FAQ to get some idea of what and how they operate.

Some obvious things to do if you are working on CRITICAL or IMPORTANT DATA:

• make a backup of the current file you are working on so that if you make changes to the data, you can reopen the original version. This is especially important if you are deleting information, reformatting or cutting and pasting: things do go missing! And it can be a pain to CTRL-Z 200 times to recover that phone number in the customer database.
• backup your important files SOMEWHERE ELSE: on USB Key, CD-R or DVD-R, even online (if the files aren’t too big), on another PC in your network, even as an attachment in an email (but don’t send it!)… There are dozens of ways – the mistake is not to have at least ONE other backup;
• and have a backup emergency plan: including writing down FlashBack Data’s Emergency Phone Number. Plan for a disaster if the unavailability of your data (for any reason) would significantly or materially affect your personal or business life.

It’s great to know that even if you were a complete moron, a company like FlashBack Data is there to help. And what happened to Charlie Ha’s father: “The recovery of the needed Word documents on my father’s failed hard drive was very successful. All files were fully recovered and functioning upon my father’s inspection. I will quote my mother ‘you saved a life time of work’.”

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In Linkfest Haven’s own words: “The purpose of a linkfest is to help bloggers promote their work. The key technology used by linkfests is the trackback ping.”

A new article is published every day, and participants can ping the article and get their blog listed on the host site. The pings on that post are left open, so the festival should be largely automatic.

Their nice diagram illustrates how the posts taking part in the festival will all link to each other…

This brief buzz will illustrate how it works. Once each article links to each other, traffic will hopefully visit. So let’s try it. Once I’ve done this a few times, we’ll see how it works then I’ll do a full step-by-step guide!

—
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Right Truth, Shadowscope, The Amboy Times, Big Dog’s Weblog, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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I love websites like this that encourage books and literature to become global as an educational resource for people everywhere.  I particularly like the multi-format that is encouraged, including the new Kindle format, PDFs and many others.

In fact, for the version of “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” there were more than 20 different formats, and an AudioBook version. Much of the work for this website comes from the well-known Project Gutenberg.

So, if you’re stuck with nothing to read on your PDA, Blackberry, iPhone or whatever… you might want to read a few classics, essays or more recent innovations.

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Advertising on InvestorBlogger dot com

I’d like to welcome the first of some new advertisers to the blog. The first new ad on the blog is the header at the top. About the Advertiser: Best Small Cap

This links through to a website called Best Small Cap dot com with the byline “Learn how to invest in small caps and make big money!”… As most investors know, small caps that grow to the likes of EBay Dell, Apple, and so on can turn small investments of $10,000 into millions, even billions.

But the challenge is finding the cream of the crop, as many small caps just go to the “pink sheets” or OTC market, when they become penny stocks. There are some good articles to read. Then you can order the book for only $19.95.

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Who is Todd Mitchell?

A search on Google also brought up the fact that this company run by Todd Mitchell had been trading since 1994. Todd Mitchell has been providing study-at-home courses and training in trading since then. So he is a veteran in the ‘teaching sells’ market online. You can listen to his introduction on MP3.

Traders Need Concepts, right?

Given the highly volatile nature of the markets that this website is focusing and the potential risks for traders in these markets to lose all of their investments, creating and marketing a website that helps to teach investors about these markets seems like a great way to make money.

Since this website’s purpose is to make money from teaching, customers are expected to purchase a membership which now costs $2,495 $1,795. While the website claims that this is quite inexpensive compared to other courses, I can’t verify that claim. I do know that workshops and seminars can be QUITE expensive. The real question is: Is the course WORTH $1,795?

Is the price right?

When you order this set of courses, you will receive:

1. “…a 250 + page Comprehensive Manual,
2. 4 Professionally Shot Video Tapes (50+ page manual),
3. 3 Hours of Professionally Recorded Audio CD’s (50+ page manual),
4. FREE Unlimited Phone/E-Mail Consultation,
5. FREE Unlimited Access into the Members Area of your website and
6. A FREE Day Of LIVE Market Training.

It’s clear from the list of items that the key lies in WHAT information the books, videos, and CDs contain, rather than the quantity of such information. A trader who’s trading daily and looking for an edge may decide that the price offers great value for money.

With courses that promise to unveil the techniques it’s difficult to find exactly what inside information or techniques they are selling but the website offers a number of pages that can help: Exactly What Is The S&P 500 Futures Market?, Trading Links, and there are some short articles that can help point you in the right direction:

• 20 Survival Skills For The Trader – The road to Trading Success is never a straight line
• Exactly What Is The E-Mini/S&P 500 Futures Market
• Trend Trading vs. Counter-Trend Trading
• Traits Of A Successful Trader/Investor
• Glossary Of Trading Terms

If you are interested in finding out more, Todd offers a free sample of his materials that can help you evaluate whether the product is suitable for you or not.

Conclusion: Experience Counts For Something

Todd clearly has a lot of experience in the marketplace, and has been offering his products online and offline for more than 13 years. In a here today/gone tomorrow internet world, this offers a certain amount of confidence to the trader or investor who is looking for solid, verifiable experience in what is otherwise a very risky market.

This post has been sponsored by Trading Concepts, Inc. via . Disclaimer: I currently do not trade options, futures or e-minis myself.

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First Impressions: Polished, Bold and Web 2.0!

So, despite the slightly garbled tag line, the first impressions of the site are very pleasing indeed. The design of the website is clearly laid out: tabs along the top; interactive loan calculator right on the page, right hand sidebar, latest news headlines, and easy to find contact information.

It’s obvious from the first few clicks that a lot of thought has gone into the design and usability of the site from the users’ point of view so that users can find usable information from the moment they log on to the site. Unlike many similar sites, this quality would tend to make the site much ‘stickier’ than other sites in the same category.

The bold graphics, interactive forms, and fresh news feeds help to create the feel that this is a website designed for Web 2.0 though there are some obvious limitations in how far the model has been pushed. I did find it possible to get quite informative responses to some standard questions that I had.

The plus points on the site design are so many it’s difficult to know where to start: but I’ll highlight five that stand out to me as an outsider.

Loan Calculators: Interactive and Practical

It’s difficult to imagine why many loan websites do NOT include these calculators at least some where on the website. What is more surprising is the bold decision to put the loan calculator right on the front page. As if that weren’t bold enough, there are two tweaks that make it even better: there are three grades –good, fair, and poor– of credit scores that (while not particularly precise) can help potential customers evaluate the kinds of payments they might be making.

Surprisingly, instead of just being requested to fill in details about your loan request, you can actually get some rule of thumb ideas about costs, options, and loan profiles BEFORE you commit to applying. In addition, you can (usually) get a choice of lenders as well by choosing different variables, credit rating, amount of loan, and loan period. The results automatically appear listed below. In fact, there are additional calculators in one of the other pages that can be used to calculate a debt consolidation loan. This interactive calculator is perhaps that appeals to me the most, because it can really help shape my thinking about the kind of loan that I would need, how much I can afford to borrow, and what terms are available. This alone is perhaps the best feature of the site.

Meeting Prospective Customers’ Leads: FAQs, Contacts, News, and an Affiliate Program.

Many such websites provide the barest minimum of help hoping that visitors to the website will simply pick up the phone and call the 0800 number or hit ‘apply’ or ‘email me’, not realizing that many visitors are simply browsing for information at first to find out what loans and options there are, how much they cost, and which companies are better at serving their customers. NetLoans aims to reach such customers by providing regularly updated news feeds, helpful FAQs, useful calculators, recent news and a glossary of terms .

(This image of a sample feed shows some of the stories that have been recently published on the feed.)

Additionally, customer contact details are available all over the place, including contact phone numbers, email, a physical address with a map, about the only thing that is missing is a “Live Contact” box that allows potential customers to contact you from the website page (I’ve used it several times, and it’s very effective on some sites!).

Last, but not least for Webmasters, there is an affiliate program that is available. I’ve signed up for the program, and may end up using it on my own website here. The promised pay out is GBP250 per applicant (which is a lot of money with the current USD in the toilet situation!). This could be an attractive way for Financial Bloggers to adapt and extend the features of the website within their own e-finance website.

And the catch…

So, what is the catch? Well, and this is a highly personal opinion, that such very web 2.0 sites miss out on one very important aspect of the web in 2008 – that of creating community and interaction between real people.

While it is apparent that the website is intended to be a e-commerce website, the lack of a personal element – a voice, as it were – doesn’t help to brand the site as customer-friendly. It would be great if there could be a personal voice that highlighted how the loans REALLY benefit customers, especially if that were written in direct and honest manner. While the word ‘testimonials’ comes to mind, I’m thinking much more of examples and entries of how the loan officers made a difference in customers’ lives. This would be best served in a real blog style format where communication and community could be brought together. That combined with photographs, videos, and other tools of the modern ‘blog’ could really draw additional traffic to the website and generate the feel of a real blog.

Other Suggestions

I think it would be a good idea to include a TOS (Terms of Service) and a Spam Policy, both of which would help to increase customer confidence and assurance that the company is serious about its business. Also, it would be great if there was a functional search box, accessible from every page, so users could enter key words and find the information they are looking for, not just what the webmasters want them to know. These are minor suggestions, but would help cement what is otherwise an excellent website.

Disclaimer: While this review has been paid for by NetLoans, the viewpoints expressed here are entirely my own. If you would like a review of a website, please contact me for more information.

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Currently, I’m converting QT at 25FPS to AVI at 29.97FPS, then editing the footage. Once done, it’s being put into WMV format, and then converted to FLV… What a nightmare that is! And the result isn’t that good… It would be much better to edit the files in AVI, then simply convert the result to FLV…

So YouConvertIt could be a great solution. The purpose of YouConvertIt is to convert your files, images, audio and video to other formats… Previously, you had to rely on the format you needed being available as an option in the ‘save as… menu’ or ‘export menu.’ Often times, it was not. For example, Word didn’t use to convert documents to PDF, though OpenOffice did. Excel was the same. When you’re busy trying to reach a deadline or finish a piece of inspiration, this lack of export options in many pieces of software can be very frustrating.

Most of the time, you’d have to search on google for software to convert, and you have to pay through the nose for such software because the software writers have you over a barrel, and they know it. Perhaps, though, those days will be over for some users…

To give the service a test, I’m doing a sample conversion for you. You can try it yourself at home. But to save myself the hassle I outlined earlier, I’m converting a QT movie from my old camera to an FLV format. I’ll post the result in this post. This image was taken from an exciting fairground ride at Brighton Pier! It was all music and lights! Not a supercoaster, but it had its own charm!

First, click on the Convert Files on the top, then you’ll see this form.

It’s easy enough to fill out. The file is then uploaded to their servers (obvious privacy implications there!)

The video was promptly delivered to my email box and looked like this. Naturally, the link expires in seven days so it’s a good idea to be prompt in downloading the result. The conversion process doesn’t offer any way to manipulate the images, change the settings, or anything else. It’s a straight conversion with defaults that you may or may not like.

I clicked on the link, sure enough it was there. I then downloaded the file to my pc, and uploaded it to my server (now that would be really neat if I could automatically set it there…). Obviously, you will need a fairly snappy upload capability (mine’s at 2mb, I think), no desire to fiddle with settings, and a good memory to download the result later! It will suit people in a hurry, on vacation, or away from their desktops. Let’s see the result in FLV format.

I did manage to trigger this error message. Woops! It’s not robust yet, and the error generated wasn’t at all helpful… it befits a beta, though.

And the final result is…

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As a thank you present to the original advertiser, this is one of my own favorite images taken in California…

Can you spot the scene? I’ll throw in a $25 Amazon certificate if you can correctly identify the scene, post the answer in your blog and link back to InvestorBlogger dot Com! Don’t forget to contact me through the form to let me know of the entry:

{mailform}

Anyone can play and win…! One blog one entry. Competition closes December on Dec. 24th at 11:59pm! Entries chosen randomly.

Happy X’mas!

(edited: I made a mistake in the amount. It should read $25 not $20… It has been corrected.)

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We’ve been doing buzzes for quite some time, but the pace of buzzes dropped off… I nearly forgot to buzz AFrogToKiss.net (unless I already did!). This time it’s for a websites not about frogs… but a whole lot of things: Blogging, Shopping Deals, A Blog A Day, and of course, Geeky Stuff.

Given the size and the popularity of her blog, she was wondering if she should move to a private server… I do think it’s a worthwhile move for her. It will provide her with much stability, resources and flexibility should her blog be stumbled or dugg. In fact, she will be able to increase the resources in a few minutes with the solution provided by Dreamhost. So, yes, go ahead. But be aware. It can get more expensive. I’m currently paying about $40 per month for my VPS, but I think the hosting is worth it. Really. I find it comforting that I no longer have to share my host with dozens of other websites.

If you’d like a blogbuzz, like AFrogToKiss’s, then hop on over to Buzz your BlogFest, read the instructions, and sign up today. There are only 18 buzzes to go! I’m happy to say I’m extending the program until I reach 30 buzzes or Christmas comes first! So hurry before I forget!

Disclaimer: I was featured as a “Blog of the Day” in November, and I signed up to advertise in her TopSpots

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So Christmas Maps wants to help people find attractive Christmas Lights displays throughout the US, as well as draw some online attention to local business in these states… Yeah! A nice way to entertain people and make a little extra $$ for Christmas! Of course, no blog or website launch these days comes complete without a COMPETITION! To draw attention to the blog, you can leave a comment, post a link, write a buzz or whatever. There are some neat prizes, too. And, if you are a blogger, there are extra prize buzzes, too.

So, thanks, guys! I appreciate the link you gave me, and I’m going to be using a theme I found courtesy of your website for Advent and Christmas!

If you’d like a blogbuzz, like this one, then hop on over to Buzz your BlogFest, read the instructions, and sign up today. There are only 18 buzzes to go! I’m happy to say I’m extending the program until I reach 30 buzzes or Christmas comes first! So hurry before I forget!

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Netloans.co.uk website is intended for the UK and provides loans for a number of different purposes: secured loans, mortgages, homeowner loans, bridging loans, consolidation loans, as well as some types of commercial loans. I quite like the calculators that allow you to work out your loan payments via different credit rankings.

Do check this site out… and you can get a feel for the types of loans and rates you will pay.

Buzzed by NetLoans.

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Simply, it’s a website that brings traditional radio to the web. You can tune in and listen to any of the stations, and when you tune in, one of several integrated media players opens in a small popup window. I was quite excited about this, because while online radio stations really do complement traditional radio, there are an awful lot of places where there are no equivalents: the music selection is narrower on RadioTime, but there’s a lot more variety of news, sports and more ‘traditional’ fare than on online stations. You can also select stations by geography, say New York City or London. Try it… so if you want to hear what Dublin sounds like in the morning or Taipei sounds like late at night!

About RadioTime

RadioTime is a privately-held Dallas-based company focused on making traditional over-the-air radio as available as possible online, through your PC and in other devices since 2002. It supports a free, personalized website, a comprehensive guide to radio, membership account services, and desktop software and hardware packages to allow consumers to listen where and when they want.

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Carnivals attract readers and links to your blog, as well as to the submitters blogs, so if you are looking for ways to attract readers, I’d suggest submitting a few of your better articles to a Carnival of your choice! You will generate traffic, and comments, if the articles are really good!

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