Is Askimet Taking a Break? More Spam in My WordPress Blog

May 31st, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Wordpress - (2 Comments)


I love the Askimet plugin for WordPress, if I didn’t have that, I’d probably not even have a blog. Since I activated Askimet, it has caught 14,820 spam comments for me without a problem. But now, after a couple months of being great, I’m starting to see a little bit of a problem. In the last 6 hours, Askimet has let 8 spam comments slip through. And these weren’t just mild comments, these were the hardcore, nasty ass kinda text & links that you definitely don’t want to see on the frontend of your site.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/specials/fortunate50/2007/Do I need to update Askimet, or have the damn spammers just found a way to get around the Askimet plugin?

Nope, don’t need to update. I just checked the Askimet site and version 2.0 is the latest release of the plugin, so it looks like the spammers have just found a way to get a little tricky and get through the Askimet wall with new comments. Those dirty bitches.

IDrive Online Backup – Saving the World One Computer at a Time

May 31st, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Reviews - (3 Comments)


I just came across a free online backup service called IDrive. Basically, they’re an online backup and storage point for your files. They offer free accounts up to 2GB and don’t impose any bandwidth restrictions, backup and restore restrictions, and best of all, no file type restrictions. IDrive is an ideal solution for individuals on the go and business professionals alike – that’s one of the biggest perks of storing your files online is that they’re available everywhere you go. When storing files online, security is always a concern, but IDrive encrypts files during transfer and during storage using 256 bit AES IDrive offers automated backups that don’t involve the complicated scheduling process that so many other backup softwares seem to have. I’d highly recommend checking out IDrive if you’ve got a lot of data that needs to be backed up.

 

 

 

 

Crazy Online Contest – Make Some Revenue by Making a Guess

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Random Stuff - (0 Comments)


Feel like making money online? Create a post on your blog just like this one that points to Courtney Tuttle’s blog. Courtney Tuttle has a blog more or less like my own (or I have a blog like his) that is focused on earning an online income. Stay tuned in months to come, I think I might be forced to try and get some extra traffic by holding a similar contest!

Rules:

  • Create a post on your blog, copy these rules and paste them into the post.
  • Make a guess! Link to my homepage with the text ‘make money online $1.00?, replacing the $1.00 with the amount of your guess. Example: make money online $386.51.
  • Leave this link to the rules page intact.
  • Use my contact page to confirm your entry by letting me know (make sure to include the URL of your post)! I will find most of them, but let me know to make sure!

Successful Upgrade to WordPress 2.2 … I Think…

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Wordpress - (0 Comments)


So after waiting about 2 weeks since the release of WordPress 2.2, I finally decided to upgrade from 2.1.2. I typically wait 3-4 weeks before upgrading to the newest version of WordPress, however this time, I was more encouraged to upgrade after reading about all the vulnerability and security holes in the previous versions of WordPress. Like I said in the title “Successful… I think…” so if you see an problems, please let me know – just stop by my contact page and tell me what’s wrong with the site!

Easy upgrade guide on wordpress.

Can You Say Reward Points? Pay Your Mortgage With Your American Express Credit Card

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Finance/Investment - (1 Comments)


American Express has just decided to let cardholders with prime loans at select lenders charge their monthly mortgage payment with their credit card, and obviously, earn rewards, points and/or cash back for using the plastic. Just imagine… never having to worry about paying your mortgage late… and imagine all of the points that you could earn by having a recurring $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or more monthly charge on your American Express Card. If you ask me, American Express has the right idea – they’re the first credit card company to offer a program like this, and I’m sure that many others will follow. To start, the credit card mortgage payment program will only work with one lender – American Home Mortgage (AHM), but mark my words – there will be more lenders following… and likely many more credit card companies too.

Here is the full release from American Express:
(more…)

Apple Stock Soars – Target Price Raised for Apple Stock (AAPL)

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Finance/Investment - (0 Comments)


Apple had some big announcements over the past couple days, and in turn the target price for Apple stock (AAPL) has been raised from $115/share to $125/share – details. Apple will now bring YouTube videos to AppleTV and this has caused both Apple and Google stock to move upward on the day – Apple closed at $118.77 (up 4.42) and Google closed at $498.60 (up 11.49).

Other factors also affecting the increase in Apple stock are possibly the new DRM-Free iTunes Plus and iTunes U featuring free content such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by top US colleges and universities including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University and MIT. Apple has established a very strong (and growing) position in the market and I can only imagine that it will continue to grow as the iPhone release approaches.

Time for a Change – Web Traffic & Revenue Reports Will Have a New Look in June

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Make Money Online | Tech/Web - (0 Comments)


When I post my next Web Traffic & Revenue Report (like this one: April Web Traffic and Revenue Report) in early June, it will have a new look. Rather than posting the two together, I’ll be separating them out into two different posts in order to expand the content of the post into a more relevant summary of the month, not only that, but I’ll also be hoping to increase my pageviews per visitor (see my previous article: Maximize Traffic – Increase Your Pageviews per Visitor)

Web Traffic Report

The first page of Web Traffic report will start with an outline of the previous months traffic stats as reported by Google Analytics outlining any highly obvious increases or decreases in traffic and/or referrals. Any and all consecutive pages will look at traffic details and specifics and try to break them down – Referring sources, search terms, pageviews per visit, etc.

Revenue Reports – Making Money Online

The first page of the Revenue Report will summarize how the month did compared to previous months, and what the key revenue sources were since I typically have 3 or more money making programs running on my site in any given month. The following pages will outline (from highest revenue to lowest) the money that I made from each source (advertising network, direct sales, etc.) and my opinion of whether the source is worth the time and effort to continue using. The final page of the Revenue Report will detail the totals for the month, revisit past goals and set future goals for this site.

If there is anything else that you’d like to see in these reports that you think I might be forgetting, simply visit my contact page and let me know what else you’d like to see.

Kobe Bryant Trade – Kobe Wants to be Traded from the Los Angeles Lakers

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Sports/Recreation - (2 Comments)


It’s about time… Kobe Bryant has finally realized that he’s not going to be able to get anymore jewelry without big Shaq daddy around, so now, he says that he’d like to be traded from the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe is a great basketball player and all, but he’s not the guy who is going to lead your team to another title – when is Jerry Buss going to recognize this? Kobe is too worried about how he looks on the court and not concerned enough with winning.

In my opinion, its about time the Lakers let Kobe go. Send him to Denver, maybe he can find that beat looking white girl who he sodomized in the Colorado wilderness a couple years ago… how’d he escape conviction on that anyways? Oh yeah… he’s a celebrity… guys like Kobe Bryant and O.J. Simpson get to do what they want to who they want. I heard O.J. is going to write a book detailing “how to get away with it”, but that’s neither here nor there… Here’s a little tidbit from a recent interview with Kobe:

From ESPN News Services:

The story lines that have engulfed the Los Angeles Lakers in the last week hit a crescendo Wednesday when Kobe Bryant said he would welcome a trade.

“I would like to be traded, yeah,” Bryant said on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York. “Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there’s no other alternative, you know?”

Bryant, interviewed by Stephen A. Smith, was asked if there was anything the Lakers could do to change his mind?

“No,” Bryant said. “I just want them to do the right thing.”

This was written specifically for Kobe’s #1 fan… LakersCentral… you know who you are. ;-)

Increasing Your Sites Revenue – Ad Replacement Experiment

May 30th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Make Money Online - (1 Comments)


Ever since I launched my site, I have been using AdBrite to server my large 728×90 Leaderboard at the top of my page, and every month, AdBrite seems to get the fewest clicks out of all of the advertisements on my site. I recently have been starting to wonder if AdBrite’s click counter is off, because I display just about an equal number of AdSense ads and AdBrite ads (inline with text content in addition to the Leaderboard ), but the number of clicks that I get on AdBrite ads has been about 10-20% of the number of clicks that my Google Adsense ads have been generating. Is it possible that people click on Google ads more just because Google is a more trusted name?

Anyways, to test my theory, I have replaced my 728×90 AdBrite Leaderboard with a new Google Leaderboard ad in hopes to see a revenue increase – thought it could be possible that the placement of the Leaderboard ad just gets minimal clicks due to its location – atop the page away from the majority of my content. Through past experience, the most successful ad placements have been those that are intertwined in the actual text of a blog post – I’ll expand on that at a later date.

The Police Just Won’t Quit – A New Double Disc

May 27th, 2007 | Posted by i.nconspicuo.us in Entertainment - (0 Comments)


After years and years on the charts, there will be a new Police CD – they are releasing a new double disc set featuring 28 of their top songs of all time. I’ve always been a fan of the police and their music, but not until lately have I actually truly started to appreciate their musical talents. I recently bought Guitar Hero II and its got the song Message in a Bottle on there… trying to play that song on a fake guitar with 5 buttons is tough… I can’t imagine trying to play it on a real guitar. Check out the list of the songs on the new Police CD:

Disc: 1The Police CD
1. Fallout
2. Can’t Stand Losing You
3. Next to You
4. Roxanne
5. Truth Hits Everybody
6. Hole in My Life
7. So Lonely
8. Message in a Bottle
9. Reggatta de Blanc
10. Bring on the Night
11. Walking on the Moon
12. Don’t Stand So Close to Me
13. Driven to Tears
14. Canary in a Coalmine

Disc: 2
1. Do Do Do de da da Da
2. Voices Inside My Head
3. Invisible Sun
4. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
5. Spirits in the Material World
6. Demolition Man
7. Every Breath You Take
8. Synchronicity I
9. Wrapped Around Your Finger
10. Walking in Your Footsteps
11. Synchronicity II
12. King of Pain
13. Murder by Numbers
14. Tea in the Sahara