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Online Gambling For The Squeamish
2008-01-22 12:15:00
A good friend of mine spends a large portion of their free time at online casinos. I've never really understood this obsession myself. I totally understand going to a real casino and joining in with the crowd to gamble away some time (and money, most likely). The excitement of the crowd, the rush of winning, even the commiseration of loosing I understand. Personally, I don't see how the same experience can exist online...that is I couldn't understand it until my friend turned me on to a feature that exists in almost each online casino: free gambling. Until my friend pointed out that a majority of the online casinos out there offer an option to play with fake money I never really got the point behind all the time he spent whittling away his money until I realized he wasn't really doing that at all. Instead he would practice a game until he reached a point where he was really confident that he could, on average, make money playing the game. Then, and only, then he would switch to...
More About: Online , Gambling

SEOdigger.com
2008-01-19 14:30:00
I recently came across this very neat site that allows you to find which keywords you rank for in search results. Here's an example of the results you will get:   If you click on any of the links you are taken to the search engine where the key word ranks. (Google for all of mine, apparently the other search engines don't like the blog at all or maybe it just hasn't been active long enough.) These results are updated every 2 weeks so it may not be entirely accurate. For instance, the #3 ranking shown for "what to do on sunday" is actually #8 but it is still accurate enough to estimate which page you are likely to be on. There are some humorous search phrases in that list like "breed my wife". That phrase results from the post that my wife wrote for the blog mentioning that girl gamers aren't such a rare breed after all. Still, interesting to note, I think. If you click the Goggle Keywords Tool link you are presented with a captcha to fill out and ...

LifeLock - Never Suffer Identity Theft Again
2007-12-23 16:40:00
I recently saw an interesting commercial for LifeLock and had to do some research on the service being offered. In the commercial this guy had his social security number posted in 3 foot letters along the side of a tractor-trailer that was driving through a large city. That's a pretty decent demonstration that LifeLock would protect your identity from being stolen. I did some searching online and found this LifeLock Promo Code and a better explanation of exactly what LifeLock does. Credit alerts are placed on all of your credit reports within an hour of enrollment. Junk mail will be restricted and pre-approved credit offers are blocked. Your account is monitored 24/7. When you apply for credit the financial institution will contact you before making any approval. This way you are aware of every line of credit that is requested from your credit report. Now personally, I have such bad credit that I'm certain if anyone actually stole my identity, they would return it with an apolo...
More About: Identity Theft , Theft , Identity , Lifelock

How To Really Make Your Post Stand Out - Awesome CSS Tool
2007-12-19 20:54:00
Wow, has it really been five days. I know that I have been a bit slack in posting as of late, but I had no idea it had been five days since my last post. So much has been going on with the holidays and everything that I didn't even realize the time had passed. I won't make any promises, especially with Christmas right around the corner, but I'll try to post more.In the meantime, I'm sure you have noticed by now that something rather interesting is happening with the layout of this post. I found a really cool CSS tool that allows you to customize the exact layout of text. With it you may specify the exact shape the text should follow using two lines on either side of the text. With the lines you can designate points that allow you to manipulate the line angles. You can place as many points on the lines as you like to be able to create interesting angles and designs.If that seems confusing to you, it would probably be easier to just check it out for yourself. The CSS tool generate...
More About: Post , Awesome , Tool , Make , Stand Out

Adsdaq - Name Your Price
2007-12-14 14:01:00
I've recently discovered an ad delivery network that I have been using here on Zybron's Thoughts. If you've noticed some very eye catching ads showing up where Adsense was before then you've seen the new ad network in action. Adsdaq.com is the ad network I've been using. Adsdaq has a unique feature for the ads that are displayed on your sight. You get to specify the CPM for those ads. (Cost per thousand impressions.) Adsdaq will then try to match the CPM you have specified with ads from it's inventory of advertisers. If it can't match that CPM for a particular ad impression it will display a backup ad instead. You can specify what this ad is - using Adsense or some other ad network ad code. In my case, Adsense is the back up ads, so if you have only seen Adsense ads on the site and are wondering what in the world I am talking about, that's why. Feel free to click through on either the picture or link above. To my knowledge, there is no affiliate program with Adsdaq...at l...
More About: Price

What National Blog Posting Month Taught Me
2007-12-12 18:58:00
As many of you are aware, I signed up for National Blog Posting Month last month. For the most part, it wasn't much of an issue. There were a couple of days that I just had absolutely nothing to write about and if you look back through the archives you will definitely be able to pinpoint those days. If you are looking back through the archives now you'll notice that I didn't quite make it. I'd like to share what NaBloPoMo has taught me. Before November began I was posting about 0.9 articles a day. Most days, I had a new post, sometimes there would be a day without a post. When I heard of National Blog Posting Month I thought it would be no big deal. A post a day...I already do that. So, I can easily sign up for this and get together with thousands of other bloggers doing the same thing. I did quite well for most of the month, as my archives show, but I noticed something almost from the beginning. I was finding it difficult to write. At all. And it wasn't just trying to find ...

Voting Begins For Mystery Topic Challenge #5
2007-12-10 13:18:00
The Christmas Ninja presents The Mystery Challenge #5! The topic was proposed by Scott of Scott-O-Rama, the winner of MTC #4. Below you will find all the entries for this challenge. Please visit and read them all. Once you've read all the entries, please vote for your favorite. Members of the forum may vote in the poll HERE. Guests can place their vote in this thread HERE. Voting concludes on Dec. 16th. Read - Robby Rational: Holiday Traditions Read - Peter Namtvedt: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why? Read - Uninhabited Man: Mystery Topic Challenge #5: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why? Read - Jester: The Christmas Colonic Read - Leaf Probably: Mystery Topic Challenge #5 Read - Jayne d'Arcy: Holiday Traditions - MTC #5 Read - Zybron: That Holiday Spirit Read - BunGirl: MTC #5: Christmas Traditions Read - Some Go Softly: Traditions Are Our History Read - ShadyLady: MTC#5 Read - Mr President: The Christmas Nin...

That Holiday Spirit
2007-12-09 15:21:00
What's that behind you? Are those sleigh bells you hear? Did you see something? I think it was wearing red...could it be the Christmas Ninja? Happy Holiday s from the BlogNinjas. They are the crazy internet group behind the MTC. The members rock the blogosphere in varying degrees, and can sneak up behind you in a moments notice. You can join the clandestine group after undergoing a severe and heavily scrutinized Blog Ninja review that verifies your actual existence and BN worthiness (basically, we read your blog). Post an entry, vote, maybe win, and you may be selecting the next topic. It's like a blog party. Click here to join. The topic for Mystery Topic Challenge #5: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why? This has been a rather tough topic for me. Not so much as thinking about holiday traditions but on what exactly to write. As a child my family didn't really celebrate Christmas. They are fairly religious people and felt that the reason for the holi...
More About: Spirit

How Not To Hold A Blog Contest
2007-12-05 19:02:00
Please see this post from A Blog About Nothing for something I totally missed before and my apology in the comments. Much of what is below has been somewhat invalidated, however it is still good advice for holding a contest. Pick a random winner whenever you can and be very clear on how to enter the contest and how it will be judged.A while back I entered a competition to describe what I would do if I had $50 to spend on my blog. I wrote this post for a competition on A Blog About Nothing and the winner was chosen recently. If you read through the comments from the post announcing the winner you will find some interesting responses. In particular, Beth from afrogtokiss.net summed things up rather well: A bit offensive? Really offensive. We took the time to write a post giving you a backlinks and you 1. don’t thank us and 2. Insult those of us who entered. There are a few things that one can learn on how not to hold a blog contest by using this contest as an example. Here is...
More About: Contest , Hold

The Blog Ninjas Present Mystery Topic Challenge #5!
2007-11-30 03:37:00
Signups are open until Dec. 2nd when the Mystery Topic will be revealed by the last winner, Scott-O-Rama. You don't have to register to signup, but you're missing out on so much more. Besides, don't you want to be a Blog Ninja? For more information on what the Mystery Topic Challenge is click HERE. To signup, click HERE. Technorati Tags: Mystery Topic Challenge, Blog Ninjas
More About: Present

Entrecard vs BlogRush - And The Winner Is...
2007-11-27 17:26:00
By a mile. I first heard about Entrecard earlier this month and kept meaning to check it out. It kept slipping my mind, though, and I didn't get around to looking at it again until a couple of days ago. I installed the Entrecard widget and began dropping my card at other's sites. It was a simple process and the benefits have been tremendous. Entrecard is what BlogRush wished it could be without the need for an affiliate program. How good is Entrecard? I'm glad you asked. Above are the stats from Entrecard for the first two days of being signed up. As you can see, there were 18 referrals from entrecard.com. 18 hits in two days sounds pretty good to me. So, how does that compare to all the traffic I received from BlogRush? That's right, that is all of the traffic I had ever received from BlogRush. Notice, if you will, that two days at Entrecard garnered more traffic than two months with BlogRush. And not only that, but two days with Entrecard made for double the tra...
More About: Winner

How I Would Spend $50.00 On My Blog
2007-11-27 03:07:00
A Blog about Nothing is offering an interesting competition.  You are to describe what you would do with $50 to spend on your blog. For me, that decision is pretty simple: self-hosted Wordpress. I've always held that I would not spend any money on this blog that it didn't earn. Fifty dollars would go a long way towards getting this blog set up the way I would like to have it. First, I would buy a domain name. I still haven't decided exactly what that would be since someone wants almost $30,000 for zybron.com, but I would pick out a decent .com of some sort. In that way, I could begin my slow transition to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. I could set this blogspot to associate with the new domain and give it some time for everyone to make the transition and for me to slowly but surely update all the links that I can that point to the current blogspot address. Next, once most of my traffic is coming in from the new domain name instead of the blogspot address I would want to get...

rssHugger · Increase RSS Subscribers with rssHugger's Blog Promoting
2007-11-25 15:45:00
rssHugger is a new site that is offering a feed directory service for bloggers. Here's a bit from their site about the service: rssHugger is a new website developed to help bloggers promote their blogs, and to help visitors discover new blogs that write about subjects that the readers are interested in. Through the power of the internet and viral marketing, rssHugger looks to bring blog writers and blog readers closer together. If you own a blog, you can get your own page on rssHugger for 10 years for giving an honest review of the site on your blog. If you want to join rssHugger but do not want to review our site, you can pay a one time review fee of $20. rssHugger will be the first ever quality, spam free, and viral rss directory strictly for bloggers. Just a simple review like this one can earn you a listing with rssHugger for 10 years, which seems like quite a good deal to me. There are already 96 blogs being indexed by rssHugger as I write this and I'm sure with the fr...
More About: Promoting , Blog

Help Save Kelso
2007-11-23 14:11:00
Kelso is a wonderful greyhound rescued by PantherGirl. Kelso has a spinal injury that requires surgery. Already, before the surgery, PantherGirl has had to pay out $3200 in veterinary bills for Kelso. She is a single mother of two and with the holidays approaching I'm sure you realize how difficult such a bill can be. Here is how you can help out. I know will you be shopping during this holiday season and likely some of that will be through Amazon.com. Simply use the link provided, either in the image here or on my sidebar, and do your normal shopping. PantherGirl will receive a portion of the proceeds of every purchase. If you will be shopping via Amazon this holiday season, please use this link and help Kelso and PantherGirl pay off this large vet bill and raise money for the surgery. Technorati Tags: Help Save Kelso

The Sims, Second Life, Facebook -- Meet Sociotown
2007-11-21 15:08:00
Sociotown is an indie virtual world with about a billion customization options. Here's an intriguing first-look video.read more | digg story
More About: Life , Second Life , The Sims , Meet , Facebook

BlogRush Gives You Traffic If You Already Have Traffic
2007-11-20 00:17:00
This is the conclusion I have come to concerning BlogRush. If you are already getting tons of hits, like JohnChow or Shoemoney, both of whom have recently posted topics about BlogRush, then the BlogRush widget works for you. John Chow is getting something around a .35% CTR with BlogRush. That's not great, but it's not horrible either. I think the main reason BlogRush works for big blogs that are already receiving traffic is name recognition. Since the BlogRush widget shows the title of the post and the blog the post is from on the widget, those blogs that are already well-known, like JohnChow.com or Shoemoney, are much more likely to get a hit from the widget than John Q. Public's blog. I know that seems to be the case for me. Some argue that it's the catchy headlines and maybe it is, but I don't think that my headlines have been any less catchy and interesting than some of the bigger blogs out there. Despite that fact, for the history of running the BlogRush widget on my sit...
More About: Traffic

What If You Earned Money From Digg?
2007-11-18 13:46:00
That is part of the idea behind Swypefile.com. This is another site, similar to BloggingZoom or Pluggy, with one major difference. The site is monetized by Google Adsense and you are encouraged to add your publisher id to your account. When you do so, ads with your publisher id are used for all of your submissions. What is more, is that your ads are shown 50% of the time for each member you refer to the site as well. Here's some info from their site about the concept: How to make more money with swypefile How can swypefile help you make more money online? Let us count the ways ... You'll profit from the latest online marketing news, tactics and strategies Get more exposure for yourself, and the products or services you promote Automatically monetize the content you submit with Google AdSense Make money off of the content all your referrals submit to swypefile! 1. Discover the latest online marketing news, tactics and strategies No serious onli...
More About: Money , Digg

Gameplay Footage For Upcoming Ghostbusters Game
2007-11-18 05:53:00
Late next year, Vivendi/Sierra will be releasing a Ghostbusters game for the Nintendo DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. The game is being developed by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis so we know that the feel of the game will hold true to the original movies. I'd still much rather have another movie in the works to report to you today, but since that isn't the case, I'll settle for what looks to be a fairly nice game. Attack of the Show on G4TV managed to get a bit of actual gameplay footage which you can see being aired during a segment of the Loop. Technorati Tags: Ghostbusters
More About: Game , Upcoming , Footage , Gameplay

NaBloPoMo...
2007-11-17 04:33:00
...Is causing me issues. I don't have anything to write about today, but I need to post something because of it. So here's the post.

Girl Gamers, Not Such A Rare Breed After All!
2007-11-16 00:55:00
My wife has recently started a new blog to kind of vent about her daily life. I suggested she do a guest post on my blog to kind of get the ball rolling and she agreed. If you enjoy her writing style be sure to check out Too Busy To Notice. "I have heard a lot of talk recently about girl gamers. The comment was posted about girl gamers being a rare breed and the conversation blossomed from there. Are female gamers a rare breed? It all depends on who you ask! "I being a girl have to admit that certain types of gaming hold quite a bit of interest for me. I've been gaming for a number of years and have played in a variety of table top and live action game settings. My first gaming experience was with a live action Vampire game that I got into in 1996. I had never been exposed to gaming prior to this. Sure I played Monopoly and Scrabble with my parents growing up, but that's not quite the same thing. Board games are a whole different entity. I played in live action game se...
More About: Girl , Rare , Gamers , Breed

Mystery Topic Challenge #4 - Voting Begins
2007-11-14 13:20:00
This challenge promises to be quite an interesting one, not only for the rather interesting topic, but also because there are 18 participants. It seems like each time the challenge rolls around there are about 5 more bloggers participating. Here are links to all of the participants in the fourth Mystery Topic Challenge : Blog Ninjas present The Mystery Challenge #4! The topic was proposed by Mr. President of Textual Relations, the winner of MTC #3. Below you will find all the entries for this challenge. Please visit and read them all. Once you've read all the entries, please vote for your favorite. Members of the forum may vote in the poll HERE. Guests can place their vote in this thread HERE. Voting concludes on Nov. 22nd. Leaf - Read More Scott - Read More BunGirl - Read More Grumpamoose - Read More from Reason to Freedom (4 entries) Peter Namtvedt - Read More Bob Bachus - Read More Michelle L. - Read More MJ Taylor - Read More Jayne - Read More ...

Mystery Topic Challenge #4
2007-11-13 13:22:00
What's that behind you? Did you see something? I think it was black...could it be the BlogNinjas? They are the crazy internet group behind the MTC. The members rock the blogosphere in varying degrees, and can sneak up behind you in a moments notice.You can join the clandestine group after undergoing a severe and heavily scrutinized Blog Ninja review that verifies your actual existence and BN worthiness (basically, we read your blog). Post an entry, vote, maybe win, and you may be selecting the next topic. It's like a blog party. Click here to join. Mr. President barely edged out Romi for a win on the last Mystery Topic Challenge .  On the 6th, he announced the next topic for the challenge: If you were President/Prime Minister for a day, with the power to do absolutely anything (Supreme Court? What Supreme Court?), what would you do and why? I've been spending most of the time between then and now trying to figure out exactly what I might want to do for that single da...

Yuwie.com - October Earnings Report
2007-11-12 14:12:00
Despite the fact that the RSR for October was less than the RSR for September I earned almost 4 times as much from Yuwie. Obviously, it's still not exceedingly impressive, but the potential is obviously there. I only have 13 referrals total and there are Yuwie members out there with over 1000 referrals and those members are actually making decent amounts on Yuwie. I was a bit more active in October and I had a full month of views there whereas I only joined in the middle of September and it made quite a difference. I gained a bit more than 4 times as many page views for October as September, which, obviously, matches the increase in pay out, as well.   RSR for October 2007: $0.35 Status: Pending Audit Level Your Cut Views Earnings You 10% 4,618 $0.16 Level 1 10% 3,700 $0.13 ...
More About: Report

What To Do With Sunday
2007-11-12 04:30:00
I've been wracking my brain for most of the day, off and on, about what to do on this blog that might provide more reader activity or something that could become a regular feature here that could help to get you all involved. I usually don't have much to post about on Sunday s and I thought it would make a great day to do a nice regular feature that really gets all of you involved. I've seen several different concepts at work on different blogs and one that I've always enjoyed and often participated in myself is Comment Friday feature at Blog About Your Blog. The concept is pretty simple, a short post introduces a topic that readers are encouraged to comment about. One person is selected out of those comments to receive a link back on the blog until the next winner is chosen. I think I would like to do something similar, but obviously I don't want to just copy the idea entirely. I'd like to add something else into the mix that might somehow make it worth more to my readers th...

BloggingZoom
2007-11-10 15:05:00
In my quest to find a service that works similar to Digg but is designed specifically for blogs and bloggers I have discovered a great site called BloggingZoom. BloggingZoom and Pluggy share many qualities (in fact, they use the same code) but whereas Pluggy is a portion of Blogsrecord, BloggingZoom is specifically a blog social bookmarking site and the focus really shows. Because all that BloggingZoom does is the blog social bookmarking, it is much more popular than Pluggy and having the extra users makes a big difference. In the past week of me using BloggingZoom I've had 6 visits to my site from it and I've only had one post become popular. Compared to the 1 hit I've received so far from Pluggy, that's a huge difference. As far as the interface, it works the same as Pluggy or Digg. You can submit an article in much the same manner as either of those sites, categorize it, and vote on other's posts - in this case, zoom it. Already, I've discovered some very nice blogs using...

Mystery Topic Challenge #3
2007-10-20 14:01:00
The new Myst ery Topic Challenge is an interesting one, for sure: You have a t-shirt. You have to wear it all day, every day. It has one word about you, describing you in some way, written on it. It is from this word that strangers and friends draw their conclusions about you. What is your word, and why? Goodness, one word to describe me and only one word. I'm not sure it's really possible to condense me into a single word. So, perhaps I should pick a word that encompasses a number of themes, much like myself. Dictionary.com defines the word eclectic as: not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine, etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems. That sounds to me to be a very good description, so I'm going with eclectic as my single word to appear on my t-shirt. It does a fine job of encompassing a number of themes, but at the same time they are very distinctive in being considered the best in the areas they encompass. ...
More About: Halle

Justice League Movie
2007-10-18 23:35:00
A Justice League movie is in the works. The Internet Movie Database lists the title as Justice League of America. The film is being directed by George Miller and written by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney. Miller's recent directing works have been Happy Feet and Babe: Pig in the City, but don't worry, he can direct action films, too. He directed all of the Mad Max series. The Mulroney's are newcomers to writing movies but with decades of comics to reference the job won't be too difficult, I don't think. The movie is currently scheduled for release in 2010. Production for the movie is currently in casting and Peter Sciretta of /film provides some insight into the role of Wonder Woman: Apparently they are looking for an actress aged 21-29, and anywhere from 5′ 2” to 5′ 9” in height. So chances are that we’ll be getting a younger/shorter Wonder Woman. Read more about the current casting choices for Wonder Woman at /film. Personally, ...

One Step Closer To ET?
2007-10-17 15:15:00
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/ap r/25/starsgalaxiesandplanets.spaceexplora tion Scientists discovered a small rocky planet orbiting a star 20 light-years from Earth. This planet is within the habitable zone, which means it's far enough away from it's sun that temperatures fall into the range that could support life. It is thought to have an atmosphere, and should have water as well. There are 129 stars within 20 light-years of us. So, if the odds continue on this trend, that could mean 1 out of every 65 or so stars should have a planet capable of supporting life. There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. That makes the odds for life being out there somewhere highly likely. It's exciting news in my opinion. If nothing else, it means there may be options for us in the future when we completely drain this planet of its resources. Technorati Tags: Earth-like planet, space exploration Yuwie.com | invite friends. hang out. get paid.
More About: Step , Closer

Why I Wish I Had Started With Wordpress
2007-10-16 16:26:00
In September of 2006 I had the notion to start a blog. I wasn't really sure what I would blog about at the time but I had felt a creative urge to put words down in a medium that I could easily share with others. There were plenty of free options available to host my blog, though I admit I didn't really do much research into those options. Instead, what had caught my eye was that Google had acquired Blogger. Well, I thought, Google has produced a number of very fine products and I can't imagine them not providing a robust blogging platform. Wow, was I wrong. In part, this is why you may notice that there are two posts in my archives for September of 2006 and then not another post until the following year. I had become so disgruntled with the limitations in Blogger that it turned me off blogging for a while. Well, that and some events in my life that kept me from really focusing on writing for some time. When I finally decided to pick it back up I didn't even really consider oth...
More About: Wordpress

Blog Action Day
2007-10-15 19:17:00
Today is Blog Action Day. A day where over 15,000 bloggers around the world are uniting to write about the environment. Normally, I'm not much of an environmentalist, but there are a few areas where I try to reduce my impact on the environment. One of those is compact fluorescent light bulbs. I always buy compact fluorescent light bulbs to use around the house. These light bulbs use on average four times less energy than a standard 60 watt light bulb. Assuming you only have one light on in any room that you happen to be in, (And you do only have one light on in the room you are currently in, right? Because if you aren't in a room, why is the light still on?) and you only need lights on an average of 4 hours a day, by using compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs you use 67000 fewer watt-hours of electricity in a year. The next time you get a power bill take a look at how much it costs you per kilowatt-hour and think how much you could be saving yourself and the e...