10. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
9. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
8. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
7. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
6. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
5. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
4. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
3. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.
2. You require me to register to leave a comment on your blog.

And the number one reason….

1. Did I mention that I don’t like being forced to register to comment on your blog?

I came across this post today while Stumbling: Top 10 Sites That Will Pay You To Blog!

I noticed right off the bat that the site that’s made me the most money, PayPerPost, wasn’t represented on this list. I also noticed the blogger’s invitation to comment and let him (?) know about any sites he missed.

(Side note: This blog is written by “admin”, which you may recall is another of my pet peeves.)

I would LOVE to post a comment and tell you about PayPerPost, but I refuse to register on your blog to leave a single comment. I don’t need another user name and password combination to remember. By forcing your visitors to log in and leave a comment, you run the risk of running your visitors off. I’d guess that probably only 10% of all visitors would register to comment, and most, like me, would simply leave your blog and not return.

If you’re afraid of getting comment spam, I recommend moderating all first time comments, or all comments for that matter, and using Akismet to catch suspected spam. It’ll require a little more work on your part, but less on the part of your readers. If you want to capture and engage people, you need to make leaving a comment as simple as possible.

For the record, I didn’t post this entry to call out the blogger, because I do think that this blog has GOOD content. It’s a shame that the required registration for comments is chasing people like me away. If you’re requiring visitors to register to comment on your blog, step back and think about it - you may just find that your readership increases by changing this simple thing.

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I’m in a mixed marriage.

My husband is a conservative Republican, right down to the core. He bleeds red, white, and blue. Ronald Regan is his hero. He votes Republican in each and every election. Me? I’m a pinko commie liberal bastard…of course, he doesn’t call me that. But I am a bleeding heart liberal, against the death penalty, and I voted for Bill Clinton. (And if he ran again, I’d vote for him again!)

Each election year we joke to each other that we shouldn’t even bother voting, since our votes cancel each other out, but we still vote. We tease each other from time to time about our views and our elected leaders, but it’s all out of love, baby. It’s the only way to make things work. I send him jokes poking fun at liberals, and he sends me jokes poking fun at liberals. (Hey, whataminute!) When I came across the formykountry blog, and saw this post outlining the so-called Conservative 10 Commandments, I knew I’d have to send it on to my own darling conservative. All in good fun, of course!

Among my favorites on this list was this gem:

Conservatives want to melt the polar ice caps and watch California fall into the Ocean.

Ha! The rest of the list is just as good, outlining a plan for a gun toting, Wal-Mart shopping, heterosexual, no Ozone layer version of the good old U.S.A. Toby Keith would approve!

I don’t agree with the opinions and viewpoints expressed in each and every post, given my liberal leanings, but the author makes great points and has a great deal of passion for his beliefs. And that’s easy to enjoy and respect!

My top geeky gift this year was a portable speaker / docking station for my iPod. I’ve been so busy since the holidays with cleaning, entertaining, and work that I haven’t even opened the box yet, but it’s on my agenda for this weekend. I’m looking forward to being able to blast my iPod throughout the house, so that everyone can enjoy my eclectic musical taste. Jim will rue the day he bought it for me!

With a lot of folks headed towards drowning in debt thanks to Christmas and holiday spending, I know there are people out there who want to save money, they just don’t know where to start. If you’re not a financial genius, FinanceGenius.com can help you with all sorts of options to reign in your spending. Maybe you just don’t know how to read that home owner insurance quote you recently received, and you need to compare it to your existing coverage. Or you’d like to find out more about how to pay off your student loans quicker. This site can help!

Holy cow! I guess friends and relatives on Piotr Staniaszek’s Christmas list aren’t getting much this year, considering he’s got an $85,000 cell phone bill to pay off. Piotr mistakenly used his cell phone as a modem for his computer - he thought it would be covered in his $10 a month unlimited mobile internet plan. Uh…no. The plan covers you when you use the PHONE to navigate the net, but not when you use the phone to use your computer to surf the internet. As a show of good will, Bell Mobility dropped the bill to $3,243, but Piotr is fighting it.

My advice? Give in and be happy you’re getting off for just over $3000 - it could be much, much worse.

Speaking of Christmas spending - if you’ve been whipping out your credit card without thinking about how you’re going to pay for it all, January might be a rude awakening for you. A lot of people go into debt each Christmas, and those people will need to know about credit card relief when the new year arrives. If you need advice on managing your debt, TheCreditExchange.com can offer you information on a variety of debt consolidation services and programs. The site isn’t a debt management company, but they do offer debt referral services. It’s an easy way to find out more without being hounded by one company or another.

TheCreditExchange.com screens and reviews all of the companies listed on their site, to ensure that you don’t end up being scammed or mislead by someone. Their referral service doesn’t cost a thing, either!

I’m amazed by the number of people who haven’t finished Christmas shopping yet. I had to run into the store earlier this weekend for something (not a gift!) and the lines were unbelievable. What’s even more amazing to me is that I’m still getting emails from various online retailers offering next day shipping, and guaranteeing that gifts will be here in time for December 25th. They’re really catering to procrastinators!

I know the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it’s traditionally the day when retailers begin to show a profit for the year. However, I’d love to see some figures on how much profit is turned THIS week, the week before Christmas, as opposed to the weeks following Thanksgiving. How much do the last minute shoppers spend? Does it turn into pure desperation, being willing to pay any price for the gifts your children asked for?

With being able to shop online, I don’t get this whole waiting til the last minute thing.

The world really is becoming a smaller place. As I was stumbling last night, I came across two different sites, both offering overseas jobs to Americans. The first was a site where Americans with a college degree could head to Korea for a year to work as an English teacher. Wages weren’t bad, and there were lots of perks. For someone unattached wanting adventure, what a great way to see a new country! Jim and I have a friend who traveled to Japan quite a few years ago to teach, and he ended up liking his stay there so much, that he still lives there.

Teaching isn’t the only job that can give you the option to travel - in fact, there’s a huge nursing shortage. Should you wish to stay closer to home, as in, in the good ole US of A, there are plenty of hospitals begging for nurses. A travel nursing agency is able to provide you with a list of locations and pay rates, and you can take your pic. Think a summer in Hawaii would be nice? How about fall in Vermont? With a travel nursing job, you can work and play all at once.

I’m betting that the iPhone will be on of the big Christmas gifts this year. Safe bet, eh? I read an article in the paper today about a man who had an extra Wii, and he traded it to someone for a brand new iPhone - that’s definitely trading up! Even though the iPhone isn’t on my list, I’ve seen it, and it is impressive. I can see why 1 million iPhones had been sold not even 3 months after the release date. Once the price was cut, sales tripled…and Steve Jobs is well on his way to selling 10 million iPhones in 2008.

With the success of the iPhone, it makes sense that new technology is being developed for use with the iPhone…like Avot mV. This new mobile video service gives you access to thousands of videos at the touch of a button. The intelligent search behind Avot mV allows you to easily discover new video content that’s to your liking, and the point and click interface eliminates the need for you to attempt to type out a URL on your phone. Once you select your video, it’s transfered to your phone in seconds, and the playback is almost in real time.

The neat part is that you can organize the videos into playlists, much like you would with songs, and then watch them on your phone…making it much more than just a phone. The thumbnail display makes it easy to navigate through the video choices and select the footage you wish to view. Share your favorites with friends though a messaging application included with the service. Click here to visit the site and learn more: Avot mV - Product Site

By the way, Apple liked this new video platform so much, that they named it a staff pick - I picked up that tidbit on the official blog of Avot. At the corporate site, I learned that the brains behind this technology come from Apple, Motorola, and Palm - here’s hoping that they continue making the mobile experience this entertaining!

Desktop PC users - never fear, Avot has something for you too. Just visit their site to click and point your way to the video content accessible to Apple users on the iPhone, and see what it’s all about. I watched a few quick clips and I’m was very impressed by the speed at which the video loaded and played (no buffering or delays in play), the available video options, and the quality of the images.

Is a new website design on your list for Santa? Or is a brand new design on your must do for 2008 list? Either way you slice it, the new year is a good time to take a new look at your website or blog and freshen things up. Tweak your website design with changes to your sidebar, new pictures, an updated logo, or by updating your website templates.

If you’re unsatisfied with your web hosting, make the new year your time to find a new place for your business web hosting. Start the year fresh with less downtime and more server reliability. View your website like a user would - do all of the links work? Is there a contact form? If you’re using ecommerce web hosting is your shopping cart easy to use, and is the check out and purchase process simple?

Small changes like these can make 2008 start off on the right foot!

What geeky gifts are under your tree? I didn’t ask for much in the way of new technology this year. I don’t want an iPhone, I’m fine with our Playstation 2, and I already have an iPod. I would like a docking station for my iPod, but I didn’t put it on my list for Santa. Hmm…come to think of it, I didn’t ask for anything electric for Christmas this year. Do I need to turn in my membership to the girl geek club? There just comes a point where you’re content with the toys you already have…

I would like to ask Santa to return my pagerank…is that possible?

While on a road trip with my kids a few years ago, we happened upon a restaurant that had audio books available for rent. Simply pick up the audio book of your choice at one location, and drop it off at another location. We tried it, and it certainly did keep the kids quiet for a few hours…this was in the days before DVD’s in cars, of course! My only issue was that the store we picked up the audio book from had a limited selection - perhaps 100 or so titles to choose from. By comparison, here’s a site with audio books that features a huge selection of not just audio books, but ebooks as well. In fact, they’ve got over 190,000 ebook titles that can be read on your Palm Pilot or as an Adobe PDF. Instead of paying $9.99 or more for a paperback in the airport, you can buy an audio book like James Patterson’s Four Blind Mice for UNDER $5! For someone who always has to have a book to read on a trip, like me, this site could be dangerous!

Tim posted the results (so far) on his poll he started on our boards, asking experienced bloggers if they’d submit a blog with pagerank to PayPerPost. I have to say, I’m surprised that the no votes are outweighing the yes votes so far. Pagerank on it’s own isn’t good for much, but it has real value for advertising - why save it if you can’t use it for anything?

Ask 100 bloggers who they use for web hosting, and you’ll get 100 different answers. I myself use two different companies, and have used a total of 4 or 5 web hosting services in the 4 or 5 years I’ve been blogging. If you need to choose a web host, the searchable directory over at
http://www.webhostingchoice.com will prove to be helpful. You can pick up a few tips and things to know in the learning area (a must for blogging and website newbies!) or move right to the features of each host. The advanced search page allows you to pick the features you want in a host and find exactly the right company for the job. Or search by monthly cost, disk space needed, or the bandwidth minimum to find the right host for your blog or website.

Alltel Cellular is testing out a new feature that I wish At&T had! Alltel users will now be able to have their voicemail messages turned into text messages, using voice recognition software. Instead of calling your voicemail, entering a password, pressing 1 for new messages, pressing 7 to delete messages…you can just read a text message. I love it!

I can see how this will have issues though - if you don’t speak clearly, or have an accent, your voice mail to text may not come out as intended. “Meeting at 5″ turns into “Beating is live” and all that!

My company recently decided to give our salespeople another CRM software to use, and one of the names mentioned was that of AIMpromote. As the person who ends being the first level support person for whatever software we end up using, I like to keep tabs on the options and upgrades available for each. AIMpromote has recently made some big changes to their CRM offering:

Traverse City, MI October 19th 2007 — AIMpromote, provider of lead management and customer relationship management software, has launched a significant upgrade to their CRM offering. The newly added white-label CRM software feature enhances the value that lead aggregators can offer to their lead purchasing customers. The enhanced reselling functionality provides an intuitive interface to completely manage the selling of a privately labeled CRM as their own.

Lead aggregators operate in the highly competitive B2B space, and need ways to add value to their offerings. Michael Myles, President and CEO of AIMpromote said “The significant added value provided by the AIMpromote white-label customer relationship software gives lead aggregators a way to differentiate themselves in what has become a highly commoditized market.” He went on to say that “this product also provides an easy way to leverage existing client bases to more rapidly increase sales.”

The close tie-in between the selling of leads and the powerful sales management functionality of the AIMpromote customer relationship software enables the end-users of the system to easily purchase leads that are then available to be worked directly in the system. There is no importing necessary. Billing is also consolidated, providing an easy way for the end-user to manage their funds and billing profile. The system has been designed from the ground-up to offer high levels of customizability and advanced functionality for everyone involved, while requiring little investment in time.

The CRM reselling and lead sales functions functionality includes the ability for lead aggregators and CRM software resellers to completely customize pricing, including setup fees, discounts, and free trials. This flexibility empowers the resellers of the system to enhance their profit margins as they see fit. The CRM reselling system allows lead aggregators and consultants the ability to brand their system with their own logo and contact information. Integrated Authorize.Net payment processing gives an interface to take credit cards automatically, and have the funds deposited directly into their bank accounts. The advanced accounting and reporting pages in the AIMpromote system give a top-down view of the business as a whole, as well as for each individual account.

The tiered approach that AIMpromote has taken to the reselling of their powerful customer relationship management software gives even the end-user clients the ability to also resell the system. The billing and accounting system automatically takes care of everything for them, even automatically setting up accounts. “The ease of use and flexibility of the AIMpromote CRM for those providing business-to-business consultation services and those selling leads has created an opportunity to significantly improve the bottom line, with very little time or expense,” said Matt Wolfe, Vice President of Operations for AIMpromote. Wolfe added, “The service and functionality of the system is unique in that customers are supported through an integrated support ticket system by their parent account. The end-users of the system will never know that the service they are using is being resold, or that the company from which they are licensing the software are not the actual manufacturers of the software. To them, it won’t be AIMpromote at all, it will be ‘ABC Software Company CRM’, or whatever name the company reselling the software chooses.”

About AIMpromote
AIMpromote leads the market in growth and technology for on-demand lead management and CRM reselling solutions. AIMpromotes enterprise lead management software empowers companies in any industry to more effectively generate, delegate, and report on leads and the teams that manage them. AIMpromote is the only solution that integrates detailed web analytics with sales and marketing analytics to provide a complete closed-loop view of the sales process. The AIMpromote lead management software offers a completely customized solution that can be tailored to fit any organization’s customer acquisition workflow. The unique combination of having the most functionality, and the lowest total cost of ownership, AIMpromote is the most cost effective solution for improving close rates and marketing efficiency.

Do you ever Google yourself?

If so, you’re in good company. 47% of adult American internet users have Googled themselves at one time or another. I’ve googled friends, family, and other people as well. It’s absolutely amazing what you can find out about people online. I can find out what you paid for your house, if you’ve been arrested, or see a copy of your wedding license. Thanks to Google, I know that my high school prom date was arrested 3 times last year, and I’ve seen a co-workers vacation pictures on Flickr. I’ve also found old friends, including my high school crushes (one looks exactly the same, the other got fat) and thanks to Google, a teacher I had in the 5th grade exchanges Christmas cards with me each year.

Who have you Googled?

I found a blog today, written by a money making blogger after my own heart. The $10,000 Blog Experiment site was launched by Brian Longest in September of this year, with a goal of making $10,000 a month by September of 2008, AND letting others know how to do it. Brian is not only looking into every aspect of blog monetization out there, but he’s letting readers know what works, and what doesn’t via his blog. Everything is completely transparent - from the income he’s made each month ($2.36 in September, $6.60 in October, and $48.71 in November) to his rankings and the marketing tests he’s run on various affiliate programs and advertising networks.

First of all, two big thumbs up for Brian’s blog design. All of the pertinent information is displayed right at the top - mission statement, how his blog started, and most importantly - his income so far. Below that, you’ll find posts Brian has done on various money making opportunities and affiliate programs. The site is organized and laid out well, and although the theme is quite different from what most of us are used to seeing in a blog, I like it.

I mentioned that Brian’s money making progress is completely transparent, and his November marketing analysis illustrates that. At a glance you can view Brian’s blog stats, his income, and expenses. Brian’s goal isn’t just to make money for himself - he’s also trying to educate bloggers on what works and what doesn’t work. His reviews of affiliate programs and other methods of blog monetization are unbiased and clear. He’s saving people a lot of time and headache by sharing his success and failures so openly. Given that his income has started to increase exponentially (it’s doubled each month since his blog launched), I don’t think Brian will have any problem meeting his goal by next September.

Crappy cubicle, be damned! The construction in our office was completed this week, and when it was all said and done, there were plenty of good spots left over. I gleefully gave up my spot next to the break room and moved to a far corner of the office. Not only is it much quieter, but now my home away from home has high walls, almost as tall as I am.

Note to all the people who work in my office: When you take your cell phone into the break room for a personal conversation, we can still hear you. Please don’t argue with your wife, or bitch to your insurance company. Everyone within 15 feet of the break room (read: my old spot) can hear all your business, and we’d rather not.

I love a good game of Backgammon. I learned how to play the game using an ancient set of my parents, and I still play it online with friends, when time allows for it. It’s a great game that requires little skill, but lots of though and strategy.

BackgammonMasters has taken my favorite game to a whole new level. Players who love the game of backgammon like I do, but want to play for cash discovered this site, offering tournaments and challenging play months ago. Now, players can multiple currency transactions at BackgammonMasters via the secure online cashier. This means that international players can join in the game easily, and compete with their US counterparts. The backgammon has attracted an international audience since adding the game of Perudo (also known as Liar´s Dice, this game originated in Spain, and has attracted a ton of Spanish visitors to the site) to it’s lineup, in addition to poker and blackjack. Withdrawals and deposits made by international customers through a credit card, PayPal, Neteller, MoneyBookers, Click and Buy, or UKash are exempt from the exchange rates and commissions normally taking by online banking providers.

The site has also added multi-language support so that players from around the world can connect to enjoy the games offered. Feedback from players has been positive, and the site plans to add more popular game options, as well as additional transaction options for players.