zerotomed.com

I got an awesome e-mail today from Patrick Gavin, the President of Text-Link-Ads where he was offering a great deal to people. By just plugging in a single word, you can get 15% off any link you purchase. This is great, but there is more to it. Not only are you getting this off for THIS month, but if you continue to buy that link for two years, every single month, you will get that 15% off. So, this is really a great deal if you are going to stick around because every month is going to be the deal off.

For those that don’t know, Text-Link-Ads is a service that allows publishers to sell text links on their site and allows advertisers to find it. It’s got a massive marketplace, so there is definitely a lot of money to be made if your site is really growing. Now, I was thinking and it suddenly dawned on me on how you could expand on this great deal. If you have never signed up for Text-Link-Ads, I realized that if you were willing to put $25.00 down, you might be able to get a deduction even better than just 15%. Here’s what my thought process was. By just signing up for Text-Link-Ads, you get $100 in free links so long as you also spend $25.00. Well, what if you also put the special offer in? Now you’re getting that link for even cheaper on top of still getting the $100 free dollars in links. Now, since I am already in the service, I can’t try this out. But if you’ve never used the service, you’re definitely missing out. To sign up for Text-Link-Ads, just click here.

If you are interested in getting a link on this blog (which you all should totally do), then just buy the link here and you’ll be off. Now, since I have probably teased you enough by making you read the entire blog post before you get to the good part, here is the special word:

august

That’s all. Put that word in and you’ll get the 15% off. But remember, this offer is ONLY available for the rest of August, so get it before it’s too late. And since it is 15% for the duration of the order, this can really save you some good money and still provide you with some great link love. Good luck with the deal and let me know if the deal works.

I am quite a few days late with this news, but on the entire blogsphere, I have not seen one small mention of this, so I decided that I would let everyone hear about it. No longer will you see Google Adsense on Digg. Those in charge of DIGG wanted to try a company that was a bit younger and more creative and that was why they fired Google and signed on with none other than Microsoft. Now, this has caused quite a stir in the neighborhood for one very interesting reason: most of Digg is all for apple and linux and they find Microsoft to be the ‘devil.’ Now they have to do deals with the devil.

Microsoft has been signed on for three years to run advertising on the site. What will this do, then, for the two companies in mention? Digg had more than 9.5 million visitors last month. That’s great for them. That’s also 9.5 million visitors that were clicking ads via adsense. Now that Google has lost this client, it might give them a slap to the face about their program. This will DEFINITELY help Microsoft grow. The way PPC works, in my eyes, is that advertisers will sign up if they have great publishers. Publishers will sign up if there are a lot of advertisers. This is the first step towards Microsoft getting a bigger chunk of the market.

What does this mean for people like me and you? Whether we decide to change to Microsoft or Yahoo or stay with Google, this does one other good thing for us. It creates competition. As Microsoft grows, Google will shrink. There is only so much money to be made. So, if Microsoft starts to steal people away from Adsense, Google will need to start doing something about it. One of the things they could do is offer more money for their publishers. We all know that we have been feeling some hurting from the click prices. Google is robbing us, so this might get that fixed. It will be interesting to see how this massive change affects the market. Very interesting, I think. To read the article, go here.

Today I had the pleasure of having an interview with one of the employees of ContextWeb. If you remember a few days ago, I mentioned that I was in the beta-testing for ADSDAQ. What ADSDAQ is is a way for publishers to determine how much they want to get paid per thousand impressions. If you want to see what I mean, go look at science chats and you tell me what you think about what you see.

Now…You may see adsense and you may see a banner ad. That’s the great thing about this program. Not only can you decide how much you get paid per 1000, but if they don’t sell all your ad inventory, your alternate ad (for me, adsense) will appear and thus, you’re always making money in a sense. Now, what I love about this is that it is not pop-ups. I was worried when putting it on science chats that I was going to start getting pop ups, but instead, all I get is that single little ad on the right and that is all. It really makes things much easier and that is something that I like.

Now…I took the survey today and I learned a few cool things. First off, they are in the works of creating a referral program which, since it is a brand new company, would DEFINITELY benefit those that get in early. That is one cool thing I learned. Another cool thing that I learned is that they are going to be adding other sizes. I requested specifically for a 250×250 and if that works, perhaps I could throw the code onto my blogs to rotate between adsense and those ads. It would definitely allow for some great money making methods, you know? Anyways…That’s what I did with my survey. They’re closed for beta, but you can sign up for the main release.

For those that don’t know what Jelsoft is, it is the company that created vBulletin, that amazing forum software that costs us $160 per license. Sure, it is a lot of money, but ever since I started using it on my science forum, I have to say that I have definitely grown to appreciate and love the software. There are a lot more security features for this software than for others, but for some, they like the free stuff. I just think that vBulletin looks better.

My friend Ramon over at KingNomar.com posted on his forum this information that he got in the mail:

Today, it has been announced that Jelsoft Enterprises Limited has been acquired by Internet Brands, Inc., a leading provider of automotive, travel and home-related sites and communities.

As part of a larger organisation, with more than 500 employees, Jelsoft has access to additional resources, support and business expertise which will ensure that we can continue to grow and flourish. Products will continue to be actively developed and fully supported, and as time goes on you will begin to see noticeable changes and improvements that are made possible by being part of a larger organisation.

As you can see, with this being sold, it offers a lot more growth for the product. Perhaps in the future, the product will have other features. One thing that I know is being created is a blogging software that is connected to vBulletin. That would be great for a lot of sites because a blog connected to a forum is a great feature. When I ran SciFreak, I thought about connecting my science forum to it, but then just made it its own domain name. Anyways…I hope that a lot of great things can come from this deal. We can only hope!

I might have mentioned at one time or another that my mother is in the web design business. She loves flash, but in general, she can design pretty much whatever someone wants. She’s been doing it for more years than I have been alive. Now, she runs her website over at SheIsDesign.com and while it is all flash and not great for SEO purposes, I think it shows that she does have some talent. However, that’s not what today’s post is about. My Mom’s partner ten years ago used to do corporate executive gifts and promotional gifts. In a sense, you take a t-shirt and put your website name on it and bam, you have a product. However, what her job is is to find you the CHEAPEST possible prices.

Now, you might be wondering why I am writing about it. First off, she is giving me free pens, so I sort of feel it would do her good to have something in return. The second thing, though, is that she offers a service that a lot of people here could use. Rather than you having to go out and find the cheapest possible place to get products, she does it for you. You contact her, tell her what you need, and then she goes out and she gets it done. She does the work for you. And if you don’t have a design, you can use their services to get one made as well. Basically, you tell them what you need and then they get it done for you. They tell you how much it’ll cost and they get it done.

This is primarily useful for those that intend to promote their websites with offline promotion. If you run a website that requires offline promotion, try it out. Or, if you want to offer some free prizes to your members on forums for reaching a certain point, you use this. I actually intend on using her service for my science forum. I’ll have her find the cheapest possible place for t-shirts or for pens or for something and then whenever a user gets to X amount of posts, I’ll give them a prize. It’s a great motivator to get people posting more and more and it really can make all the different. If you’re interested in seeing this service (and I recommend everyone does), please head on over to her site and check out what she has to offer. She offers corporate executive gifts and promotional items. And I think she really has a good service. But, I am slightly biased. :p

One of the big things that I have found on the web is people’s interest in “Class C IP Hosting.” They want to have these different IP addresses because search engines will trust a link more from many different IP addresses than if they were all on one IP address. What do I mean? Alright, let’s say that you buy shared hosting from where ever. Mine comes from Host Gator, but you can get it from where ever you want. I am on one of their servers because it is shared. But so is someone else…And someone else…And so many other people. There are tons and tons of people on this server. That’s cool and all…But the problem is, what happens if one of those sites links to me? The strength is not as strong because they are on the same IP as me.

However, some bright minded individual decided to take a chance. I’ll write in another post about taking chances. But, this individual decided to not just make a hosting company, but to create a new TYPE of hosting company. From Host Gator comes SEO Hosting. What is SEO hosting, you might be asking? It is your way to make each and every one of your sites available on a different class C IP address. That means that if you have five sites all about medicine or about sports or about whatever and you want to interlink them, you can get five different class C IP addresses and the interlinking will be a lot stronger than if you just used shared hosting.

The way this site works is very simple. You decide on how many different class C IP addresses you want. If you want five, then you are going to pay seven dollars a class C IP address. If you want fifty, then you can get each IP address for $4.75. Basically, you are paying for the number of IP addresses you can get. Now, what if you don’t have a network that you want to interlink. Why would you want to do this, you may be asking. A big thing that I have seen on digitalpoint and other webmaster forums recently is people creating a ton of blogs and selling blog posts. And what they offer are links on separate class C IP addresses. What SEO Hosting has done has guaranteed you a way to have those so you can, in a sense, offer this sort of a deal.

A few of the great things that this hosting has to offer is a Cpanel/WHM control panel, which you would only find if you purchase reseller hosting; instant backups, which is amazing, especially if you’re running a lot of blogs; private branded nameservs; and so many other things that really make this hosting look amazing. Now, I have not personally used them yet; however, since I have been using Host Gator since I entered the web business about a year ago, I have to say that I am genuinely pleased with their hosting. I’ve had no down time and it really is a state of the art provider of hosting. So, I can pretty much bet that their hosting is going to be just as amazing.

Their Hosting Plans:

Hosting Plan Per C-Class Pricing Diskspace Bandwidth
05 C-Classes $7.00 / c-class $35 / month 20 GB 200 GB
10 C-Classes $6.75 / c-class $67.50 / month 40 GB 400 GB
15 C-Classes $6.50 / c-class $97.50 / month 60 GB 600 GB
20 C-Classes $6.25 / c-class $125 / month 80 GB 800 GB
25 C-Classes $6.00 / c-class $150 / month 100 GB 1000 GB
30 C-Classes $5.75 / c-class $172.50 / month 120 GB 1200 GB
35 C-Classes $5.50 / c-class $192.50 / month 140 GB 1400 GB
40 C-Classes $5.25 / c-class $210 / month 160 GB 1600 GB
45 C-Classes $5.00 / c-class $225 / month 180 GB 1800 GB
50 C-Classes $4.75 / c-class $237.50 / month 200 GB 2000 GB

As you can see, getting hosting from them is a really nice way to ensure that the links that you have linking away from your site to other sites is going to be really strong. Whether you offer a service that offers blog posts on blogs that all have different IP addresses or you run a small niche network that you want to interlink, or if you just want to have your site on amazing hosting with all different IP addresses, this hosting is the way to go. Try SEO Hosting out.

The phone that everyone has been waiting for is finally out. Well, mostly everyone…I don’t much care if I get it or not. That’s right…The iPhone is out. They are available at all Apple stores in the United States. However, there are some restrictions. First and foremost, Apple is only allowing two per person to be purchased. Furthermore, AT&T who happens to be selling the iPhone as well is only allowing ONE per person. I suppose there were just not enough of them for those people that buy ten or fifteen at a time and then resell them on e-bay for a profit.

So, how do you get one is my big question. Go to your apple store, make sure you have five hundred or six hundreds dollars in cash, depending on if you want the 4GB or the 8GB and buy one. The phone is internet ready and offers a very nice screen for those to look at. The thing that made me so interested is there are no buttons. Every phone I have ever seen up until now has always had some sort of a keypad. This one doesn’t. It’s just one block (maybe that’s not the right word) and you push the screen, at least, that’s what it appears like.

It’s anticipated that the iPhone will be available in Q4 for those in Europe and in 2008 for those in Mexico and Asia. So, for right now, Americans are most likely to enjoy the phone for quite a while. At five hundred dollars a piece, you must love your cell phone if you’re going to buy one. However, it is a nice looking phone and if Apple put as much care into making their cell phone as they did for making their iPods and computers, it’ll be a very durable, very wise investment. Enjoy the phone, but good luck with all those lines in front of the store.

I would just like to say that as I write this blog post, I am using the AGLOCO toolbar and ladies and gentlemen, it is awesome! I don’t know if it is clocking hours yet, but I went to my page just now and voila, there was the download link to install AGLOCO. If you are a member of AGLOCO, it is time for you to run on over and install it. It’s not due in a week or April 16th or any of that. It is downloaded and it looks great. The cool thing about the ads is that they change constantly. The ads are there and they are always changing. I love it.

If you DON’T know what AGLOCO is, then I am going to give you a link to go check it out and learn about it. It is a referral link and I would really appreciate if you signed up. If you have no signed up, please click here to make money surfing the internet. It is about time that the viewbar is out, but I have to say that while others were getting pissed off, we can finally say that it is out and it is time to make some money! Good luck everyone!

Well, it appears that the rumor Google to buy Feedburner was a true rumor. Google has recently purchased the RSS website for $100 million. I would just like to say that that is a lot of Benjamin Franklins. What I’d do for a fraction of that. Maybe even .1% of that. Anyways…This can mean some very good things for us bloggers who have been trying very hard to balance the adsense on our blogs as well as the importance for a RSS feed. RSS feeds help us get better rankings for sites like ReviewMe. However, there are no ads on there, so that lowers the money you can make via adsense. Maybe all of that is about to change.

Google has been recently gobbling up companies left and right. YouTube, Feedburner, and all of these other sites are something that Google intends on expanding their empire with. Think of it as if you were an Emperor. If you wanted to expand your domain, what would you do? Create armies that were good at conquering particular enemies. If you’re going against an enemy that is primarily cavalry, don’t send in heavy infantry. Get the picture? Since Google is picking up all of these companies, they are trying to diversify and control all different types of markets. Once they control all of these markets, they can really begin to profit.

What does this mean for publishers, though? It means that Google can begin to place ads on the RSS feed, something that was not really possible before. If all does work out for them, Publishers will have more means of profiting. Sure, it’s not much for me since I have a small following. But, for those that have bigger followings, it’d be good. If you want to join my RSS feed, click here. Who knows? Maybe because of this purchase, we can expect to see more success stories appearing as more money begins to be made for people. Who knows?

So many people read blogs these days via a RSS feed that anyone actually seeing an actual page is very rare. This is pretty cool because you’re guaranteed people are going to be reading your content since they receive updates about new posts. The downfall for this, though, appears when someone decides to put adsense onto their blog to try and earn money. RSS feeds don’t show adsense or other programs similar to this, so technically, publishers are losing out on a lot of potential money when their readers are viewing their site via RSS. So, why would Google want to buy Feedburner?

Google notices how big RSS feeds are becoming. Since most of us (excluding me) read blogs via RSS feeds, it makes sense that Google would want to acquire this. By acquiring Feedburner, they could begin to put their ads into the feeds. Simply speaking, adsense ads could thus appear in the feeds. Since Feedburner is a pretty big one, it’d make sense for Google to gobble it up like it has numerous other sites in the past few years. YouTube, Doubleclick, potentially Feedburner…What next? All I can say is that if Google does buy this, income for publishers could increase even more. Who can complain about that?

Note: With the recent problems of stock prices changing considerably for Apple due to a post by Engadget saying that the iPhone is going to be late to be released, I give this information from information I have found from others. It is not 100% true until Google says it is 100% true. Please keep this in mind when making any decisions about what to do. Thanks.

And since we’re talking about RSS, please consider joining my RSS feed if this post interested you.