BEVERAGE POLL AND PODCAST SURVEY

I am interested to hear about your favorite beverage! Vote for coffee, tea, or water in the poll in the right column. Grab a mug or glass with your drink of choice, and please take a moment and fill out the podcast survey for EGO NetCast.

AUDIO AND COPY

I have to chew Stephen Smith's post, Personal Kanban:

These Open Loops (unfinished actions or commitments, in GTD lingo) are a stressor, causing mental distress and reducing your motivation to actually get things done. (January 13, 2010, www.StephenPSmith.com)

For my new site (www.EgoSoleTrader.com), I will use a new WordPress theme framework. I will reread the following posts before I start with the site.

• 10 Web Site Musts: Building Business Class Web Sites by Ramon Ray.
• How to Make Your Homepage Copy 'Pop' by Lisa Barone.

I plan to start recording short audio clips and add them to my blog. I will use a service called Cinch cast. I learned about this service via a tweet message by Jill Foster. Please participate in the new poll and give me input on what kind of audio clips you are interested in listening to. (Scroll down the right column and go to the section, Pick Your Audio Topics.)

• Reading from books.
• FAQ
• Good things in life.
• Rant of the week.
• Open thread discussion.
• Other stuff...

Kirkwood #39 (Watch Me)

ADS POPPING UP

After reading the article in NewsWeek, Time to Hang Up the Pajamas, you could wonder if it is any use to try to to earn money from your blogging. [Editor's comment: Maybe Daniel Lyons, a.k.a "Fake Steve Jobs", landed some other writing gigs?] Here is an excerpt from the article:

I rationalized this insane behavior by telling myself that at the end of this rainbow I would find a huge pot of gold. But reality kept interfering with this fantasy. My first epiphany occurred in August 2007, when The New York Times ran a story revealing my identity, which until then I'd kept secret. On that day more than 500,000 people hit my site—by far the biggest day I'd ever had—and through Google's AdSense program I earned about a hundred bucks. Over the course of that entire month, in which my site was visited by 1.5 million people, I earned a whopping total of $1,039.81. Soon after this I struck an advertising deal that paid better wages. But I never made enough to quit my day job. Eventually I shut down—not for financial reasons, but because Steve Jobs appeared to be in poor health. I walked away feeling burned out and weighing 20 pounds more than when I started. I also came away with a sneaking suspicion that while blogs can do many wonderful things, generating huge amounts of money isn't one of them. (NewsWeek, Growing Rich by Blogging Is a High-Tech Fairy Tale, February 7, 2009.)

And here is my comment on the article:

Posted By: lyceum1776 @ 02/11/2009 10:32:18 AM

Interesting story. Did it not feel strange to blog as a "copy" of Steve Jobs? I think you could make money on advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsorship and in other ways. I am a "poor" capitalist at the moment, but I enjoy my blogging and it has lead to great things, in a material & spiritual way. With my experience and increased knowledge how social media is working, I could create workshops, engage in consulting projects and the spread the good word.

All the Best,

Martin Lindeskog - American in spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.
EGO blog - http://egoist.blogspot.com

I will test a mix of different advertising options and evaluate them during some time. My goal is to continue to build up the traffic to my EGO blog, publish interesting, enjoyable and valuable content and continue the conversation and exchange of ideas with my fellow bloggers, readers, and friends through this blog, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, LinkdedIn, etc.

I am especially interested in fostering my relation with BlogAds ("Blog advertising makes opinion.") and see if I could attract some new advertisers. I will place an ad on a blog sometime in the future. I will see if some of my future guests on my podcast show on SolidVox could be interested in advertising on EGO.

I am thinking of adding a "featured item" section on my blog, with books that I have discussed on my blog.

It will be interesting to see how it works out with the new premium ad feature by Chitika. Here are the latest "search engine visitors" coming to my blog:

• "morris cat" - Google Australia.
• "nikkala stott" - Google.
• "fox's licorice candy irish" - Google.
• "20010911" - Google Canada.
• "cutty sark after the fire" - Google Canada.

If you are interested in how to produce free leads, using Google Adwords, check out this video by Mike Dillard. If you want, you could buy a designated Chitika ad space, directly from me. At the moment, I have an Alexa ranking of 467,918.

I am not allowed to encourage my readers to click on the ads provided by Google. I let my visitors to decide when to click or not... Please note that I don't control how the contextual ads come about and I haven't installed any "filter" to my Google AdSense account at the moment, blocking advertisements from certain URLs. As an example, I wonder why ads by Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology is popping up now and then, but what the heck: "Let 'em pay!"

Here is an excerpt from Mike Rosen-Molina's post, Project Wonderful, Blogads, FM Go Beyond Click-Through Ads:

Click-through ads remain the most familiar form of Internet advertising to most websurfers. Most ad services, including Google's AdSense, still operate primarily on this model. Unfortunately, the click is plagued by the potential for fraud, as some site owners resort to multi-clicking their own ads or setting up bots to do so for them. (You can see Google has tried to address in its terms of service agreement, which, for example, admonishes site owners against directing readers to click on the ads.) ...

"There's an industrywide discussion about the value of the click -- both how we're recording clicks and how successful it is," said Matt DiPietro, Marketing Manager for FM Publishing, one of several ad services pioneering alternatives to the click. "It's essentially the way that marketers have been trained to think of the market online, but it's something that's evolving as we speak."

If advertisers want to attract customers and bloggers want to make some money, it would behoove both sides to look for something beyond the click-through. But what else is there? At least a few companies have come up with some ideas. (PBS MediaShift, November 21, 2008.)

You could support my blogging in an easy way, subscribe to free trade publications! For example, check out Website Magazine. [Editor's note: International readers could perhaps use a new version of a postal service like a forwarding service provider.]

Please participate in the new poll, Support EGO by:

• Checking out ads?
• Placing your ads?
• Sending donations?
• Sponsorship?
• Shopping @ EGO stores?

Scroll down the page and look at the bottom (right column). [Editor's note: Thanks for your participation and support! The poll will be up until my birthday, May 25.]

...and now a word from Donald Trump.

EGO TEMPLATE

I have done some changes to the template and moved things around a bit and removed some stuff. The page takes still time to load and I will look into the matter to see how it could load faster. I know that I have some external third party scripts that could cause delays, but I want to keep a few ads that could generate a little money for my blogging and some social media and networking tools. If you think that my blog is too cluttered with stuff, but still want to read it, you could subscribe to EGO RSS feed. I will keep the Sphere feed flare feature so you could check out blogs and sites that are covering the same topics as my posts.

You have about a fortnight in order to decide if you want to give George W. Bush a score card. I think I will retire the Uncle Sam tour poll in the near future. I don't see that a new commander in chief will pay a visit to a new country in the immediate future... Please feel free to give me suggestions on topics for new polls and interactive features on my blog. Do you think it is a good idea to create some kind of survey regarding the election? I recommend you to read Craig Biddle's article, McBama vs. America, and then share your thoughts by writing a comment or linking to an article or blog post that you think is useful to read before the election day.

Have you seen that Cox & Forkum has posted a new cartoon? Here is an excerpt from Allen Forkum's post, Rescue me.

Since stopping editorial cartoons a year ago, John and I have continued creating gag cartoons for my automotive publications. Occasionally one of our gag cartoons will cross over into editorial territory. Such is the case with the cartoon above, which is why I'm posting it here (it's also posted at John's blog). We have no plans to start up again, but it's certainly not for lack of material in the news these days... (CoxAndForkum.com, October 14, 2008.)

Rescue me

[Editor's comment: I don't want to rescued by a bailout or receive a handout, but please feel free to voluntarily give me support for my blogging. You could use PayPal as the tip jar by clicking on the "Donate" button in the support section, or if you want to buy something from my wish list at Amazon.]

WIRED SEXY GEEKS

Go and vote for the Sexiest Geeks of 2007 at Wired. I voted for Marina "Hot For Words".

WWJD WITH A GPS

"Trettodag jul" ("thirteen days after Xmas" in Swedish) is on January 6. In Sweden you celebrate Xmas on December 24, so that is why you say thirteen days, instead of Twelve Days of Christmas. It is time for Jesus to jump in his car and show up for his manifestation. [Editor's comment: I wonder if YHWH, a.k.a God has installed the car with a GPS... What would Jesus do?]

First read Brendan Miniter's article, What Would Jesus Drive? What kind of silly question is that? and then read Onkar Ghate's piece, "What Would Jesus Drive?" Campaign Shows Greens' True Mystical Colors.

It is Thor's day (Thursday) of thunder, so here comes a great excerpt from Edward Cline's hard hitting post, Hoary Old Chestnuts.

I rarely bother to beat dead horses. God is a dead horse, although religion is not quite as dead as most atheists believe, because it is alive and snorting and being harnessed to contemporary American politics. That is religion’s special danger; churches of all stripes and sects are enlisting their congregations in the army for various welfare state, environmentalist, and collectivist crusades. Their primary object is to resurrect the country’s alleged “Christian” values and rid that “Holy Land” of the infidel, the atheist, and incidentally clean up the earth, stop global warming, and herd everyone into a welfare state corral. It is God’s will, they say, to take care of the lame, halt and poor by impoverishing the healthy, the independent, and the industrious. (Rule of Reason, January 3, 2008.)

I have added The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever and Sparrowhawk Companion to my wishlist.



Robert Tracinski is endorsing Rudy Giuliani in the latest issue (Vote for Rudy. Support the Defense of Freedom over Religious Politics.) of The Intellectual Activist Daily newsletter.

With the opening of the primary season—tonight's Iowa caucus isn't a real primary, but it is the first test of candidates' support among grass-roots activists, and thus it will have an impact on the primaries to come—now is the time to give TIA's official endorsement for the Republican primary.

I say that this is my official endorsement, because it has been clear where I've been leaning, unofficially, for most of the past year: I support Rudy Giuliani as by far the best candidate for the Republican nomination. He is the only candidate who will promote the influence of what I call the "secular right": support for free markets, a strong national defense, and strict separation of church and state. (TIA Daily, January 3, 2008.)

[Editor's note: Please vote in the Pajamas Media Presidential Straw Poll. Scroll down the right column and look under the section EGO poll.]

[Editor's comment: Have you heard about Betty Bowers & her "invisible running mate"? ;)]

Related: My post, CHOOSE OR LOSE 2006.

UPDATE 01/04/08:

Men of Hope by Mike Allen of Politico.com.



From Ari Armstrong's post, God Wins in Iowa.

The big winner in the Iowan caucuses is Jesus Christ. Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama are the two most religious -- politically religious -- candidates of their parties. I'm surprised that those candidates came in first. However, I don't believe that they'll win the nominations (though I think it likely that Obama joins somebody else's ticket). Indeed, I would be stunned if either candidate made it to the general election. If both make it, that will demonstrate that this country is in worse shape than I thought, and that we are likely headed toward more expansive religious-based politics. (Ari Armstrong, January 4, 2008.)

UPDATE 01/06/08:


God's Candidate by John Cox.

In the news: Onward superstitious soldiers! Is Huckabee God's choice tomorrow in Iowa? - "Deadline USA" - The Guardian Blog.

LAST DAY FOR BUSH

Bush's last day in office is on January 20, 2009. Please vote in the EGO poll (scroll down the right column).



[Editor's note: I don't endorse this "backward" site...]



Check out the carnival "This is not my country, but it is 2008" at Hell's Handmaiden.

MTV CHOOSE AND LOSE ON MYSPACE

I remember MTV's "Choose or Lose" stunt at New Hampshire College in 2000. Al Gore went to the school and had a hot air session on global warming and other stuff. I think it will be another voter's dilemma this time around. [Editor's comment: Have you found your candidate?]

I don't think it will be easier to find a real candidate after the joint effort by MTV and MySpace.

Related: My posts, CHOOSE OR LOSE 2006 and PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL.

STUMBLEUPON A CAT AND BUSH

This cat has crossed my path several times for some time now. I almost stumbled the first time it showed up on the road. Talking about stumble, how do you think G.W. Bush is doing? [Editor's comment: I wonder how Ferdinand the Conservative Cat would vote...]

If you want to explore new sites, check out StumbleUpon.

JOB RATING FOR BUSH

Please participate in the new EGO poll. Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's work? Or, are you unsure or don't care? "Hu" is Bush?

Check out the overall job rating at PollingReport.com.

UNCLE SAM TOUR POLL

I missed to publish a venting post on Thor's day, so I have to start some thunder by adding a new EGO poll.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

The original poll was created at Bravenet.