"It's Too Hard to Make Money Online" ::: NO KIDDING! With every click of the mouse there's another "expert" beckoning me to download his/her pdf, throwing up an annoying pop-up screen screaming at me to subscribe - sending me another email thanking me for visiting. ENOUGH!

A month or more ago I ran across a relatively new blog that had more than 40 amazing comments. What was so amazing about these comments? Commenters included:

Mavis Nong from Online Business Tools

Kristi Hines from Blog Marketing

Stacy from Blog Tips

Janet from The Natural Networker

Devesh from Twitter Marketing

Marlon from productivity bits

Obviously, this blogger was doing something RIGHT! A "right" collection of comments, from all the "right" people, including some of the hottest bloggers of 2011! How was this accomplished? the blogger stopped by one of the blogs that these other bloggers were featured on, leaving a comment there, and in some cases asking that blogger to return the visit and check out a particular post. It worked like faery dust! (before YOU try anything like that, you'd better make sure you've posted a quality kick-ass article. This is one of those things you only get ONE chance at!)

Onto "too many visitors" - I have "too many" on this very blog! I briefly discuss the problem here.

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How many blogs do you reckon you run across on a weekly basis? Ten? Twenty? Thirty? Try hundreds. Of those hundreds, how many could you honestly say fall within the category of GREAT blogs, with interesting content?

Thousands and thousands and thousands of blogs have passed before my two weary eyes - and you know that when it all comes down to it, there are just a good handful of weblogs that I find myself bookmarking or digging or stumbling or otherwise simply committing the URL to memory. Loading-Info is one of them. Catchy title, eh: "Loading-Info"...

Take a moment to think about it. I find the brand "Loading-Info" to be quite appealing!

A quick peek at the blog reveals articles on web-hosting and dedicated serves, widgets for info-geeks and website-monitoring for advanced users. Whether you are a wet-behind-the-ears newbie or a problogger, you'll learn something new with every visit to Loading-Info... here's a small sneak-peek of a sample (click on the pic to visit the post):

Whenever you're out websurfing on the net, whether googling for something or bloghopping or scouring for information on a variety of websites, you are LOADING INFO. YES! From the internet - to your computer - to your monitor - through your eyes and ears - directly to your brain! Electrons to electrons!

There's no smoke and mirrors here! There's a real gal behind the blog: she is none other than Gian Faye Paguirigan! She describes herself as a web enthusiast: "a normal 19-year old geek on the block who discovered the Internet long ago" - she is musically gifted, multi-talented, loves cats and loves to watch the stars (as in astronomy!) She's also into "playing with codes, doing programming and spending time tweaking things on the web and on her computer."

Gian Faye blogs out of Dasmariñas City, Ca, Philippines.

Loading-Info is LOADED with blogging info, tips and resources - and Gian Faye is very active across a wide variety of social media:

Connect with Loading-Info's Gian-Faye:

Email Me

I give Gian-Faye an "A" for excellent presentation and a 5-star rating for her blog "Loading-Info" ... check it out!

Gian Faye is featured on:

.

Filipino Book Bloggers - http://filipinobookbloggers.wordpress.com

WordPress Book Bloggers - Spotlight on the WordPress.com Book Bloggers

Bloggers | Top Philippine Bloggers - http://bloggers.com/Philippines/popular

.

Add Gian Faye on:

.

Shelfari - http://www.shelfari.com/gianfaye/shelf

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5099556-gian-faye

Bookmooch - http://bookmooch.com/m/bio/gianfaye

Add/Follow/Vote me on Bloggers: http://bloggers.com/gianfaye

Book Blogs - http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/GianFayePaguirigan

Follow me on Twitter: @gianfaye | twitter.com/gianfaye

Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/dichotomyofonesthoughts

NetworkedBlogs: apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/dichotomy-of-ones-thoughts

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I'm over the top! Going for the JUGULAR on this!

I've really had it with the JUNK TWEETS! Even people I follow on twitter because I am really interested in what they have to say and what they are doing have taken to sending out s**t!

I'm NOT talking about, nor am I condemning "advertweets" where the tweeter employs a service that pays them back for clicks. I'm talking about tweets referencing old outdated blog posts and/or defunct websites. What an embarassment and a smear on the reputations of some of the most wonderful bloggers around!

SHOCKING DISCLOSURE! A blogger whose tweets I once followed, let's call her "Miss M" --- she spent a lot of time bragging about her "5000+ followers on twitter" - until she discovered that because of all her junk tweets, several times a day, sent out via automated services - most of her followers had turned off her tweets - she was actually only reaching the dozen or so regular blogging buddies who spent hours commenting on hers (and one another's) blogs. Not only that, Miss M runs three other twitter accounts where she does the same thing! End result: she's wasting her own time and everyone else's... plus... she has delusions of internet grandeur! LESSON: unless you are following a celebrity, beware of anybody with more than 1000 followers on twitter!

Be more responsible about what you share - and with whom! Don't "junk up" your twitter account

Don't be a TWIT on Twitter!

Read my article: Are you reading the tweets of those you follow?

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Help cbs2 Find New York’s MVBs.

Calling all foodie, sport and mommy blogs! CBS is looking for the best

and brightest bloggers in New York to compete for the title of

Most Valuable Blogger in each of six different categories:

• Dining/Entertainment
• Sports
• Lifestyle

• Local Affairs
• Health/Fitness/Medical
• Everything Else

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Nominate the best bloggers in your community, as many blogs as you’d like. They can be your own, a friend’s, or just one you think deserves the title of New York’s Most Valuable Blogger.
2. Vote for MVBs in each category from August 16 – September 9. You can vote once in each category per day.
3. Come back and see who won. We’ll tally the votes and award a $50 Amazon Gift Card to each category’s winner. In addition, we’ll choose one editor’s choice winner per category for another Amazon Gift Card. Feel free to check out the rules for details.

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Evolution of a contest: after a measure of time, it became apparent that my blog contest needed a bit of refining. I laboured over making the adjustments. It is done!

OK - we're wiping the slate clean, re-setting the timer to "ZERO" --- after a very disappointing turnout, I awarded the 7 particpants who partially completed the requirements before Wednesday July 20th $10 each and I'm now OFFICIALLY revamping the Summer 2011 USD $100 Giveaway

If you don't have paypal and live outside the USA you can still enter and win! The prize money will be wired to you via Western Union or other service of your choice!

The LEGAL Stuffs::: Open to all! All winners must be 18 years of age or older.

Can YOU follow a simple set of directions?

If you can, you should be able to win USD $100.

Yes, this is a contest! There will be ONE winner! All you have to do is take the FIRST STEP :::

There are only FIVE steps. Just ONE winner! How to win? Here's your clue: THINK LIKE A SPHINX!

REVISED CONTEST RULES 22.July.2011

(1) Somewhere on this very page is a LINK that will ask you to do something (perform an action). Once you perform that action, I will be notified by e-mail that you have successfully completed STEP ONE and I will then direct you to STEP TWO of this exciting challenge!

HINT: You give something, you get something!
While you are waiting for further instructions, here's a checklist of tasks for you to perform and then, if you will, document that you have done so by leaving the info in the 'comments' area:

(2) Become a follower of my blog by pressing the "Follow" button on the right hand side

This will set you up to receive additional clues and other info!

(3) Leave me a comment on this post letting me know you are now a follower

(4) Head over to twitter and follow ME!

(5) Earn more chances to win by sharing my blog to others, including but not limited to:

• Tweeting the post (and following my tweets)
• Sharing on StumbleUpon, Digg, reddit.
• Mention this post on your blog (and keep in mind that every minute you spend here is a minute you aren't spending on your writing a post for your own blog.)

ATTENTION! Must have a minimum of 50 participants in order for the prize to be awarded. I'm leaving the contest open-ended for now, and will announce a closing date or contest deadline after 50 entries have been properly tabulated.

NO MULTIPLE OR DUPLICATE ENTRIES ALLOWED! If I find out you've been cheating, you forfeit everything you've worked for!

Good luck!

(H/T to Excel Spreadsheets Blog for setting a better example of running a $100 Giveaway, which I used as a model for this incarnation of the giveaway!)

More LEGAL Stuffs::: Open to all! All winners must be 18 years of age or older.

Dave Lucas is not responsible for and will not consider incomplete or incorrect entries, or emails sent or entries mailed but not received by me for any reason, as potential contest winners.

Winner of the contest will be contacted at the "sender" email used to enter the contest (the email you submitted when you found the first link and perfromed the required action), and the person receiving and replying to the winner announcement email will be considered the winner unless they specify another person within the reply email as the winner. Dave Lucas will transfer the contest prize to the email address supplied by the recipient of the winner announcement email. (The prize may also be sent by postal mail if conditions warrant).

Only one entry per email address... no person may enter the contest more than once by using multiple email addresses.

Claiming of prizes requires an email to Dave Lucas from the winning sender email address within 15 days of being notified of winning at the email used to enter. Failure to respond shall mean that the winner forfeits the prize. Dave Lucas is not required to award elsewhere any prizes forfeited by the chosen winner.

If the specified prize becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, Dave Lucas will substitute a prize of like or equal value.



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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The Technium

McLuhan at 100 - It's Marshall McLuhan's 100th birthday. What would McLuhan have done? A flash crowd meetup? Or republish an old interview from Playboy in 1969? You may be amazed by The Technium article. If you don't read anything else today...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Haitian President Joseph Martelly met in Port-au-Prince on Thursday (July 21) to discuss reconstruction efforts and visit a housing expo. A year and a half after the massive 7.0 earthquake decimated the capital city and killed hundreds of thousands of people, 635,000 of the country's poorest residents are still living in tent camps. Clinton, who as Co-Chairman of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission has devoted much of his efforts into alleviating poverty in the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, lauded the efforts of Martelly, who took office earlier this year. (Watch the Video via NTN24)

Spat of the Day: Google+ Removes Business Profiles via the Wall Street Journal (blog) Yesterday Google axed pages set up by Sesame Street and Ford Motor Company as well as the blogs Mashable and Search Engine Land. The reason, Google manager Christian Oestlien later explained in a post and a YouTube video, was that the “platform at the ...

TechCrunch

Long Before Google+, Google Declared War On Facebook With OpenSocial - Google and Facebook are at war. We've known this for a while. Of course, neither side will admit to it, but they are. Winner takes the Internet.
Blogging Is Hard – With A Capital H! That's the word from Marya, posting on FamousBloggers!

Marya is a passionate writer, blogger and a thinker. When she is not writing online , she is often found mimicking the properties of a bookworm, or enjoying delicious food - cooked by capable restaurant people. Catch more of her posts at Writing happiness. Follow her @WritingH.

Scoop: Oracle scrubs site of embarrassing Java blog

via CNET- Jul 22, 2011 by Jay Greene The beginning of Sun's Jonathan Schwartz's 2007 blog post praising Google's use of Java in Android. In the midst of its nasty legal battle with Google, Oracle seems to have resorted to a bit of Web site scrubbing. ...

chinaSMACK

The Great Pretenders: China’s “Unfire-able” English Teachers - The majority of China’s private ESL institutions are considerably less legitimate.These schools hire English teachers with one, basic requirement: a white ...

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The World Media Awards and Event will take place on October 26th at the PayPal building in San Francisco.

Publishing experts at the event will conduct practical workshops where attendees can learn how to use cutting-edge technologies and techniques to maximize their publishing potential. The event will celebrate the best in blogging and media creation and double as a means to exchange publishing best practices.

Tickets to attend the event are selling for $50 ::: entries to the Media Awards are $45.

The first 100 bloggers to blog about the event will receive a free ticket and/or entry to the awards for posting about the event.

Space is limited to 500 attendees. Contact event organizer Murray Newlands for full information or see www.themediaawards.com

The event is for authors, bloggers, media creators, media owners, PR practitioners and businesses.

Statement from event founder Murray Newlands:

“I love blogging and wanted to create an event to celebrate the best in blogging and media. I meet lots of publishers and want to be able to create an environment where they can exchange knowledge and creativity.”

“We are pleased to have eBay as lead sponsors of the event. eBay is keen to support the publishing community.”

The eBay partner network is increasingly reaching out to support bloggers. Among the other sponsors are Growmap, VigLink and Trancos.

World Media Award judges include Tanya Alvarez, Adrian Harris, Steve Hall, Sarah Austin, Chang Kim, Julie Wohlberg, Pierre Zarokian, Ivka Adam, Cheryl Contee, Krystyl Baldwin, Jeremy Wright, Rob Bloggeries, Dave Duarte, Dana Oshiro, Tom Foremski, and Judith Lewis.

Media partners include Adrants, Bloggeries, The Affiliate Marketing Awards, MediaVision, Read Write Web, My Blog Guest, Web Traffic Control and FeedBlitz.

For more information visit www.themediaawards.com

Murray Newlands is author of How to Make a Blog Book and Online Marketing; a User Guide. He is also founder of the Affiliate Marketing Awards. Born in the UK, he now spends his time in San Francisco and New York. Murray works for Audience Mindshare and consults for Trancos Ins as well as being an advisor for VigLink.

Tags: the World Media Awards, Murray Newlands





Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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Turkey: Protest Against Kurdish Singer Prompts Strong Social Media Response

Beyoncé Covers Complex For Their ‘Might Fly’ August/September Issue

It seems the time has come to devote a post to some of the ladies out there making cultural contributions. Of course there's Nicki Minaj and Britney Spears tearing up the summer concert circuit, and there are other gals performing, writing, politicizing... Gals we pity, gals we love and gals we love to hate (Palin, Anthony, Abedin, Clinton...)

Michelle Malkin » PLAs should be outlawed

michellemalkin.com - Graphic via The Truth about PLAs I’ve written before about Project Labor Agreements — Big Labor’s blunt instrument used to give unions a leg up in contracting. This racket needs all the exposure it...

HIP HOP MOMENTS - YARAH BRAVO.mov

Liked on www.youtube.com

Raw Blue Cheese TV's mission is to gather up the stories that have made the people that matter in HIp Hop who they are. We let their Hip Hop Moment's speak for th

Yarah Bravo om "Hiphop Moments" - se video!

www.kingsizemagazine.se

Minns en spelning i hemstaden Lund då hon som 11-åring fick se ett band som skulle komma att slå igenom stort...!

Download Free Music from Yarah Bravo »

Sreyneath Poole is a young blogger who has begun documenting “inspiring Cambodian women”. Her blog project wants to dispute the traditional belief that Cambodian women belong to the kitchen. This is her story. Kounila Keo· reports for Global Voices :

read »

On her blog Sreyneath writes: "This project was inspired after my essay on Cambodian women in politics and their discrimination in the public service. In my conclusion of the essay I wrote that Cambodian woman will continue to be discriminated against because of traditional values.

"Inspiring Cambodian Women" is set up in the hope of inspiring the world, especially Cambodian women, to stand up and make their voice be heard; to be active in their community or in the world. Even if tradition plays a huge obstacle, women can look up to women role models and be inspired to overcome the obstacles that they will face.

My hope is for the global community to become aware of incredible Cambodian women who put their time and effort to the development of their local community.

Through blogging, I hope to inspire women and youth to become an active member in their local and global community."

Turkey: Protest Against Kurdish Singer Prompts Strong Social Media Response

Aynur Doğan, a Kurdish-Turkish singer, was jeered by part of the audience during an open air concert in the Istanbul Jazz Festival because she sang a song in Kurdish. Part of the audience sang the Turkish National Anthem in protest, while others in the audience supported the singer. read »

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Zambia: Brenda Zulu Discusses the State of Zambian Blogosphere By Soneka Kamuhuza ::: The spotlight is on Brenda Zulu, a Zambian journalist and blogger. Brenda’s blog [1] provides her reflections on information, communication and technology issues in Africa. Based in Lusaka, Zambia, Brenda has been blogging since 2004 and is one of Zambia’s seasoned blogger’s. I talked with Brenda about her life, her blogging origins and the state of Zambian blogosphere. · read »

Quidditch — This Week’s Grobby!

In honor of the last movie installment of the epic Harry Potter series, this week’s Grobby (that’s Greatist lingo for hobby) is inspired by the magical sport of wizards: Quidditch. But Cathy Zhu blogs that this fast-flying game isn’t just for the magically-blessed among us. Real-life— or “Muggle”— Quidditch has taken off in a big way, with opportunities for landlubbers and broom-riders alike. Check it out!

Highlights of Hogwarts: Harry Potter’s Best Spells, Coolest Creatures, Saddest Deaths, and More...

Garden gnome explains why the free blog advertising networks (eg. Entrecard, Exposure Your Blog) are more popular than paid blog advertising networks (eg. CMF Ads, Adgitize, Project Wonderful)::: meantime, Matthias publishes his sneaky SCRAPER CODE for entrecard cheats!

Zambia: Brenda Zulu Discusses the State of Zambian Blogosphere By Soneka Kamuhuza ::: The spotlight is on Brenda Zulu, a Zambian journalist and blogger. Brenda’s blog [1] provides her reflections on information, communication and technology issues in Africa. Based in Lusaka, Zambia, Brenda has been blogging since 2004 and is one of Zambia’s seasoned blogger’s. I talked with Brenda about her life, her blogging origins and the state of Zambian blogosphere. · read »

Tonyo Cruz uploads the five-year Philippine Digital Strategy plan of the government's Commission on Information and Communications Technology. The aim is to make the Philippines a digitally-empowered nation in 2016.

Gaga slammed by disability groups after performing on stage in wheelchair...

Tags: Harry Potter, Dobby



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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To All You 'Aggregator Haters' Out There

Splitting hairs regarding journalistic ethics aside, readers familiar with HuffPo and many other blogs (including mine) have come to expect that they will encounter active aggregating every now and then. I've had brushes with those who would accuse me of "over-aggregating" - and I've had to address the issue - even though regular readers have come to recognize it is something I do (in some instances just to save a lot of time, not at all for 'SEO').

Aggregating, when done properly (see Global Voices) provides a valuable collective portal of information. LAweekly comes to the defense of suspended HuffPo blogger Amy Lee, taking aggregation by its horns and showing it for what it is: "...a staple in blogland. Love it or hate it. Let's debate it by saying it's a prominent model and we all do it..." The following has been "aggregated" from New York Magazine:

Earlier this week Simon Dumenco published a column in Advertising Age griping that, for all Arianna's promises that she drives traffic to outside sites, the Huffington Post actually takes ideas and hands out few page views in exchange. His example was a column of his own, which was liberally quoted and minimally linked by HuffPo. In the end, the massive "traffic-driver" sent only 57 page views his way. It was an egregious but not uncommon example of the site's aggregation philosophy, on the far end of a sliding scale that often tries and succeeds in proper attribution. (Some of our posts get big bumps from a HuffPo link. Others don't.) In response to Dumenco's column, HuffPo's executive business editor, Peter Goodman, profusely apologized and suspended the young blogger who had "over-aggregated." (Read the complete NYmag article)

TechMeme founder Gabe Rivera is irked that the term “aggregator” is being misapplied ::: he argues that the Huffington Post is not an aggregator --- What irked me was the reminder that “aggregator” is a rather broad-brush term that paints systematic news-rewriters like the Huffington Post (who bury links) as cousins to snippet-quoting sites like Techmeme and Mediagazer (which link prominently). Dumenco’s piece, whose subtitle begins with “The Blog Queen Defends HerAggregation Practices” also cites Bill Keller’s famous column from earlier this year, entitled “All the Aggregation That’s Fit toAggregate“, which goes as far as coyly utilizing the term “aggregate” repeatedly as a euphemism for “steal”.

You may also enjoy:::

Successful aggregation

and here's a snippet of a "post from the past" :::

To All You 'Aggregator Haters' Out There

A bit of misplaced criticism has come to my attention: a statement that this humble weblog "publishes pages and pages of information that may be found elsewhere on the world-wide web but provides no added value to it." Here's another: "You ape what others write and publish through your unstoppable cut and paste routine."

To those above allegations from windbag Windy, I answer:

My blogging work includes, but is not limited to, reporting and editing in the traditional way, as well as aggregating information from a variety of sources, sorting and presenting the data to make it understandable.

Those who would criticize me for "cut and paste" would do well to look at their own blogs and tweets to search for occurrences of fleeting instances of originality.


Tags: aggregator, Huffington Post



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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