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  • Gary Lee 11.30 pm on 06.01.2008 Permalink | Reply  

    American Gladiators are Back, but not LACE! 

    American-Gladiators.jpgAs soon as the American Gladiator theme song started playing, I remembered getting together in the family room with my cousin, sister and the rest of the family to watch the Gladiators mix it up! Cheering for Nitro, Diamond, Zap, Turbo and my all time favorite – Lace – was one of my favorite childhood memories and dreams of competing are still a dream! haha . . . oh, I can’t forget Malibu . . hahah! man . . and people wonder why I’ve turned out this way!

    So now, NBC has brought back American Gladiators and instead of the hokey hosts Larry Csonka, Mike Adamle, and Joe Theisman, we got hosting rookies Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali. I’m watching the premier episode as I type this blog, so don’t expect this post to be as eloquent as my other posts :) . The format seems to be pretty much the same, but to be honest with you, I thought NBC would make it into a reality show with the competitors in one house and the gladiators in another house! Speaking of the Gladiators, I was curious to see who would be the new Gladiator Hottie, replacing my all-time favorite Gladiator – Lace! Here’s a list of the new female Gladiators . . . which one are you gonna pick as the Gladiator Hottie?

    CRUSH Crush – Definitely a hottie. From what I’ve seen, not really big on personality, but I’m sure she’s just a little shy right now. Doesn’t she remind you of the start of Bionic Woman?
    Fury Fury – At least she’s keeping it old skool with the 80′s scrunchee and hair!
    Helga Helga – Is it me or shouldn’t she have a sweedish accent? She dresses the part, so she might as well play the part! I think she’s going to be a Pop Icon for 2008. Someone’s gotta replace Psycho Spears, right?
    Siren Siren – Probably comes in second for the Gladiator Hottie. I didn’t really get to see her much, but based on this picture. Nice!
    Venom Venom – OK, this might sound mean and if by some chance in hell she reads this blog and sees me on the streets in LA, I’m sorry. But she looks like a porn star.
    Stealth Stealth – She looks like what Jada Pinkett Smith would look like if she took steroids.

    Final Thoughts – These are not in order, just overall impressions after watching the show.

    • That Eliminator is whack. What happened to the arm bike thing? What’s this swimming under fire thing? And WHO THE HELL thought it was cool to put the rope on the Travelator to help them make it up?
    • I think it would be so cool to have Celebrity Gladiators. Imagine Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears or Terrell Owens and his personality or Shaquille O’Neal aka The Big Gladiator!
    • New York Fire Fighters should learn how to swim!
    • These Gladiators aren’t as nice as the 80′s version! You can tell how much trash talking and public humiliation has permeated into society, replacing good sportsmanship and friendly competition.
    • How is Assault not a every episode staple?
    • Someone is going to make their own version of American Gladiators on YouTube and get a lot of hits! Remember those backyard wrestling videos of kids jumping off roofs to powerslam their friends. This IS the next Phenomenon.
    • Again, the rope on the travelator is so pure cheating!

    I can’t wait to go watch a episode in person. The studio is just down the street, so I hope my friend can get us tickets!

    Anyone catch the first two episodes of American Gladiators? What are your thoughts?

     

    • Jon Lee 5.43 am on 07.01.2008 Permalink

      Yeah these new gladiators aren’t doing it for me… bring back Ice, Diamond and Storm! Even if they are 40-50 haha.

      Do they still have the tennis ball shooting gun, that one was probably my favorite event.

    • Gary Lee 9.36 am on 07.01.2008 Permalink

      they are old, but at least they would have personality . . . these new gladiators are a little shy i think

    • CC 11.23 am on 07.01.2008 Permalink

      I think that an episode with the old, post-roid gladiators competing with each other would be unbelievable.

      “And Lace running down the . . . OOOOOH! The medicine ball found her face!”

    • CC 11.24 am on 07.01.2008 Permalink

      And Wolf is ridiclously annoying.

    • The Kid 5.24 pm on 07.01.2008 Permalink

      DUDE i can’t wait for this, the other show that looks pretty good this year is the sarah conners chronicles!

      Nice post =)

    • Frank 6.18 pm on 09.01.2008 Permalink

      I really liked the show on monday. It reminded me good the old days. I will continue to watch it until I get bored… :)

    • Saman Sadeghi 10.31 am on 10.01.2008 Permalink

      I can’t tell you how excited I am for this show!!!!

      Where are the links to high res. images :?:

    • Gary Lee 11.53 am on 10.01.2008 Permalink

      YES . . bring back the old gladiators to compete as contestants! GENIUS!

    • Gary Lee 11.54 am on 10.01.2008 Permalink

      hahha . . . no clue, but if you find them . let me know . . or maybe when i hit the show up, i’ll take some for you!

    • Rock 1.02 pm on 10.01.2008 Permalink

      Not sure what you meant by “what happened to the arm bike thing?” because it was definitely a part of the eliminator. Did you mean something else?

    • Max 2.05 am on 24.01.2008 Permalink

      Show is awesome so far! They’re actually holding tryouts for season 2 in LA this weekend. Anyone wanna go with me? haha.

  • Gary Lee 9.54 pm on 03.01.2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Belated New Year! 

    2008 – You best watch out! This is the year where everything is lined up to be ripe for the picking!

    CertifiedSo far, I’ve received my certifications for both the Google Adwords Program and the Yahoo Ambassador program. The Google Adwords Program test consisted of 117 questions, which 75% of them need to be answered correctly within 1.5 hours. Trust me when I say that you should really study for this test as I spent a lot of time at their lessons section reading every little detail of their adwords program to make sure I would pass the test. At a cost of $50 a test, you don’t want to take it too many times! On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador program, which is similar to the GAP test, but is only 80 questions, which you have to answer 80% of them correctly to pass. Let’s just say the test is more of a proproganda campaign for Yahoo as there were questions that dealt directly about Yahoo’s search features (i.e. 6.2 Billion Searches in March 2006). If they were self-promoting themselves, the test was more like a joke, with such questions as this:

    How do you set the daily spend for your campaign?

        a) Use the Daily Budget Feature

        b) Set your Desktop Alarm

        c) Get a Junior Associate of your company to remind you

    and you think I’m kidding . . . . go take the test and find out yourself!  No matter though, the preparation for both tests gave me a thorough understanding of how bout the Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing programs work and I feel fully confident in putting up campaigns.

    So, why did I just drop $100 on these certifications? These certifications are necessary as I get ready for a new business venture with Ms. Danielle – an internet marketing consulting firm specializing in search engine optimization, search engine marketing and pay-per-click advertising. Nate Whitehill and his crew at Unique Blog Designs are currently putting the final touches on our site and both Danielle and I will be announcing the launch of the new site very soon.

    Other than that, I have been diving head first into a lot of affiliate marketing, which is something I really haven’t taken a look at because of my previous full time jobs. I don’t think there should be much of a problem as I’m already very familar with some the methods already used and have a great network of bloggers and entrepreneurs around me to keep me in line. I really look forward to diversifying my income sources and see the money fill up in my bank accounts.

    What do you have planned for this year? Are your goals financial or personal?

     

    • ms danielle 8.33 pm on 05.01.2008 Permalink

      lol “set your desktop alarm”! it’s gonna be a great year…so glad we started it off right!

  • Gary Lee 10.31 am on 26.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Amazon Kicked Holiday Ass and they’re not done! 

    Amazon HolidaysRemember when Amazon.com was the internet darling everyone was drooling over? When actual profits mattered instead of projected profits and when there were experienced business people setting up these businesses instead of the 19 year olds setting up community sites.

    I’m sure you’ve heard about facebook’s valuation of multiple billions of dollars. I’m sure you’ve heard (probably from me) the overwhelming success that is going on at Apple.com. Well, Amazon.com has had one of their most successful years since the dot com bust with their shares almost tripling in value over the course of 2007.

    I just read the post over at TechCrunch and it’s amazing to hear the numbers Amazon just released:

    • Sold a Wii every 17 seconds when it was in stock
    • 35% increase from last year’s peak sales day ( aren’t we suppose to be in an economic slowdown?)
    • New Kwindle Book Reader coming in at No. 2 in Electronic Sales (I call BS, but that’s just me)

    And now, 2008 is coming up and they are rumored to have their online music store running pretty smoothly. If that happens and they can undercut Cupertino’s 99ct pricing structure, we got a pretty competitive marketing when you also include Walmart’s online music store. No matter though, competition breeds innovation and the people who truly benefit from all this is the consumers.

    Last time, I recommended you buy Apple at $163 and now it’s at $198 . . . can I go 2 for 2 and say . . Amazon’s at $93 right now . . . it might be time you include them in your 2008 portfolio.

     

    • ms danielle 11.13 pm on 26.12.2007 Permalink

      at least clickriver let us run until the end of the year. i couldn’t imagine what their numbers would be if they didn’t allow products advertisers on their site this year!

    • jen_chan, writer surefirewealth.com 11.37 pm on 28.12.2007 Permalink

      Well, if the rumors are indeed true, (I think there is a distinct possibility), the consumers are in for a real treat. I think it’s nice to see competitors outdoing each other because in the process, they give better service to the consumers.

    • The Monetizer 5.57 am on 02.01.2008 Permalink

      Good recommendation on Amazon..I had it when it was $40, and of course sold thinking they were in the dumps..May be time to pick some up again.

  • Gary Lee 12.00 am on 25.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Holidays 

    To remind us of how wonderful the holidays are, here is my favorite commercial featuring one of my favorite people in the world:

    Short, but sweet . . . and thank ebenezer’s 3 ghosts for the pause button!

    Happy Holidays everyone!

     

    • Ed Lau 5.00 pm on 29.12.2007 Permalink

      She’s not the hottest supermodel in the world anymore (still pretty hot, though) but Heidi Klum still easily seems like she’d be the most fun.

    • Gary Lee 1.12 pm on 31.12.2007 Permalink

      oh ya . . . definitely not the hottest . . . but her personality seems pretty cool from what I’ve seen . . . between the boring Giselle and they psychotic Tyra Banks

  • Gary Lee 11.28 am on 19.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Finding the Max CPC for PPC Campaigns 

    I’ve been working on a project at work regarding our search engine marketing and the higher ups would like to know how the whole pay per click program works. To make it easy, I wrote a little summary of what are the key factors I look at when I start a campaign and didn’t want to waste all that work, so I’m going to post it and change the numbers around so I don’t get fired :) . So here is the basic knowledge you have to know to find the maximum bid your company can pay in your pay per click campaigns.

    Formulas to Know

    Cost Per Click (CPC) = Total Cost of Campaign / Total Clicks from Campaign Landing Page
    Conversion Rate (CR) = Total Number of Leads / Total Number of Page Impressions
    Cost Per Action (CPA) = Cost Per Click / Landing Page Conversion Rate
    Lead Value = Value of Sale * Lead to Sale Conversion Rate
    Gross Margin = (Lead Value – Cost Per Action) / Lead Value

    Assumptions

    • Landing Page Conversion Rate = 10%
    • Lead to Sale Conversion Rate = 25%
    • Value of Sale = $100 – Determined by Total Profits divided by number of Sale
    • Lead Value = $25 – Determined by Total Profits divided by number Leads

    Goal

    • Find Maximum Cost Per Click for a 20% Gross Margin

    Solution

    • Maximum CPA = Lead Value – [Gross Margin (20%) * Lead Value ($25)] = $20
    • Maximum CPC = CPA ($20) * Landing Page Conversion Rate (10%) = $2.00

    Example

    Budget = $200
    Clicks = 100
    Leads = 10
    Sales = 2.5
    Total = $250

    Gross Margin = (Revenue – Cost)/Revenue = (250 – 200)/200 = 20%

    Now go take a look at your site and see what kind of variables you already know. Once you figure out what they are, you can plug it into these formulas and start scaling up your ad campaigns.

     

    • The Kid 6.08 pm on 19.12.2007 Permalink

      Nice post dude! Now people have no excuse on saying how much do i bid!

      Well done!

    • website design 1.59 pm on 26.04.2008 Permalink

      Thanks for the post, will pass it round the office.

  • Gary Lee 3.23 pm on 14.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    A Great Scene from a Great Laker Fan 

     

  • Gary Lee 8.08 am on 12.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Blogging Heroes are Out for the Holidays 

    For those of you who don’t know, I was asked earlier this year to be included in a book with some of the top bloggers in the world. I’m excited to see that the book is finally out on sale on Amazon.com:

    Blogging Heroes

    It was truly an honor to be listed with some of these bloggers and I just wanted to give them a shout out real quick and hopefully will be able to meet them one day to get each one of my chapters signed by them. Here’s a list of the Top 30 Bloggers and a little bio from their blogs:

    • Dave Taylor – The Intuitive Blog – Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, The Intuitive Life Business Blog, focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymous Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.
    • Chris Anderson – The Long Tail – A very popular editor in chief for Wired Magazine who has set up a special page for people to get to know him just a little bit better. Click here to check it out – CA Bio
    • Gina Trapani - Lifehacker – A freelance web programmer and technology writer based in San Diego, California. Relocated from Brooklyn, New York, Gina is the founding editor of Lifehacker.com, a weblog on software and personal productivity and the author of Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day (Wiley, December 2006). A Sun-certified Java programmer, Gina builds Firefox extensions and web sites. Her writing has appeared in Popular Science, Wired, Women’s Health and Macworld magazines. The Wall Street Journal Online recently profiled her and her work has also been mentioned in Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, Wired and PC Magazine.
    • Ina Steiner – AuctionBytes – Ina is Editor of AuctionBytes newsletters. Ina has appeared on television news segments and radio programs, including Public Radio’s Marketplace and Bloomberg Radio’s Tomorrow Tonight, and is a weekly guest on “Calling All Collectors” syndicated radio show. Read More.
    • Mary Jo Foley - All About Microsoft – Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet News, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning “At The Evil Empire” column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.
    • Dave Rothman - TeleRead – David is author of six nonfiction books published by Ballantine, St. Martin’s Press and others. David serves as site coordinator. While David originates many posts for the TeleRead Web Log, aka the TeleBlog, we welcome contributions from others.
    • Frank Warren - PostSecret – A blog that posts unique postcards donated by the readers. If you’re to click only one link here, go here. I love seeing the creativity that comes from a community.
    • Mike Masnick - Techdirt – Mike is the visionary behind Techdirt, building up the core idea into reality and recruiting the management team. In addition to providing the strategic direction for the company, Mike oversees all editorial aspects of the Techdirt’s public and customer sites. Mike’s insight into the realms of business and technology are the basis for his frequent posts to the award winning Techdirt blog. The widely followed, often quoted blog was launched in 1997. Prior to founding Techdirt Inc., Mike worked in business development and marketing at Release Software, an e-commerce startup, and in marketing at Intel. Mike has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations and an MBA — both from Cornell University.
    • Mark Frauenfelder - BoingBoing.net – In his own words – “ - I’m a writer and illustrator living in Los Angeles. (Click on my picture for a bigger version.) I co-founded bOING bOING magazine and the Boing Boing Blog, and was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998. For three years, I wrote a monthly column for Playboy called “Living Online,” and was the co-editor of The Happy Mutant Handbook (Putnam-Berkley, 1995). I’m the design columnist for Mobile PC magazine and a contributing editor to TheFeature. I’m also a ukulele fanatic. From June to October 2003, my wife, two daughters and I lived around the South Pacific.
    • Robert Scoble - Scobleizer – is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He is married to Maryam Ghaemmaghami Scoble. He has two sons, Patrick, from a previous marriage, and Milan. He and his wife currently work at PodTech.net,[1] a video-podcast startup. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel.
    • Peter Rojas - Engadget – Peter Rojas is the CEO and co-founder of RCRD LBL, an ad-supported free music download site, and the founder and editorial director of Engadget, a daily blog covering gadgets and personal technology with a monthly readership of over 9 million. He is also the co-founder of Joystiq, Gizmodo, and Hackaday, and served as an on-air contributor to HGTV’s I Want That – Tech Toys and as a guest host on G4’s Attack of the Show.
    • John Neff - Autoblog – John is a Editor in Chief of one of the biggest and best auto blogs on the net. Starting with only 4 writers and another editor, they saw a growth to nearly 3 million visitors within their first two years of existence.
    • Ken Fisher - Ars Technica – I’m currently a Ph.D. student in Religion at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. I’m now working on my dissertation, and hope to be finished in a few years. I have worked in IT for most of my “career years,” performing senior administrative functions at two different universalities, as well as running my own consulting business on the side. I tend now to focus all of my energy on my studies, but I still consult from time to time to pay the bills. Read More.
    • Deborah Petersen - Life in the Fast Lane – Fast Lane Transport is a family owned company started by Layne Petersen in 2000. My name is Deborah Petersen, Layne’s wife, and I am the primary blogger for this site. You won’t find me discussing business topics only — as important as this is to our company’s success — rather, I will also share with you some of my other interests including yard art, garden art, and details about what is going on in my home city, Edmonton.
    • Joel Comm - JoelComm.com – Joel Comm is an Internet entrepreneur who has been online for over 20 years. In 1995, Joel launched WorldVillage.com, a family-friendly portal to the web which enjoys thousands of visitors each day. Joel is the co-creator of ClassicGames.com, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 1997, and now goes by the name Yahoo! Games. Since then, Joel’s company, InfoMedia, Inc., has launched dozens of web sites which offer online shopping, free stuff, website reviews and more. Joel is the author of many popular books, including the NY Times Best-Seller, The AdSense Code. He regularly makes appearances at Internet marketing conferences and seminars.
    • Brian Lam - Gizmodo – This is one of my favorite blogs that I actually go and read every day. Only problem is that Brian doesn’t really have a bio on Gizmodo, so just know that he’s a tech freak who started a blog which has grown into one of the most popular tech blogs in the world.
    • Kristin Darguzas - ParentDish – My life before Nolan was an adrenaline-fueled triage of extreme sports,international travelling, and corporate ladder climbing. My unexpected pregnancy changed my life in ways I could never have imagined, and, though it would have seemed impossible to Old Kristin, I wouldn’t change my new Universe for anything. I used to keep a personal blog until things got kind of weird (this is the Internet, you know) so now my primary outlet is ParentDish. I know. You’re so welcome. Read More.
    • Chris Grant - Joystiq – Motivated by either an unhealthy Messianic complex or a dearth of career opportunities (he never could decide which), Chris put his college education to good use as a carpenter before becoming editor-in-chief of the popular gaming blog, Joystiq. If he isn’t busy playing or writing about games, he’s doing other, no doubt less important, things (though he probably shouldn’t be). He hangs his hat in the cultural epicenter of the video game industry, Philadelphia.
    • Scott McNulty - The Unofficial Apple Weblog – Being the Apple whore that I am, I visit this site religiously. I think it’s a weblogs rule to not post bios, so just trust me in saying this is a great blog for an of you new apple owners.
    • Philipp Lenssen - Google Blogoscoped – In his own words: “I’m from Germany and I’m doing this blog and my other sites & related projects full-time (before that, I worked as web developer for several years). I like to do a bit of everything, from drawing to programming, writing to trying to play around with music, and I’m always interested in the intersections among those areas.” Read More.
    • Brad Hill - Weblogs, Inc. – In his own words: “I’m the Director of Weblogs, Inc., an AOL Company. I have been (and in spare time still am) an author, consultant, and occasional public speaker. I’ve written a ton of consumer nonfiction books and many pounds of articles and columns.” Read More.
    • Steve Rubel - Micro Persuasion – Steve Rubel is a senior marketing strategist with over 15 years experience. He currently serves as senior vice president in Edelman’s me2revolution practice. Edelman is the largest independent global PR firm. He is charged with helping Edelman identify, test, incubate and champion new forms of communication. He also explores this on his well-read Micro Persuasion weblog and in a bi-weekly column for AdAge Digital. Steve is often sought out as a speaker and appears frequently in the press. He has been named to several prestigious lists, including: Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100. Prior to joining Edelman in 2006, Rubel spent five years at CooperKatz & Company.
    • Rebecca Lieb - ClickZ – Rebecca Lieb is vice president and editor-in-chief of the ClickZ Network. She has held executive marketing and communications positions at strategic e-services consultancies, including Siegel & Gale. She worked in the same capacity for global entertainment and media companies including Universal Television & Networks Group (formerly USA Networks International) and Bertelsmann’s German network, RTL Television. As a journalist, Rebecca has written on media for numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and spent five years as Variety’s Berlin-based German/Eastern European bureau chief. She’s also a member of the graduate faculty at New York University’s Center for Publishing, where she also serves on the Electronic Publishing Advisory Group.
    • Deidre Woollard - Luxist – Here’s an interview I found with another member of the Weblogs, Inc network
    • Richard MacManus - Read/WriteWeb – Read/WriteWeb was founded and is edited by Richard MacManus, from Wellington New Zealand. Prior to R/WW Richard did research, analysis and product development work for companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. He has also worked for some of New Zealand’s top organizations as a Web Manager. Richard co-founded the Web 2.0 Workgroup and from September 2005 – December 2006 he started and ran the Web 2.0 Explorer blog at ZDNet. Richard also co-founded and was Executive Editor of Micro Media Corporation, a multi-channel leadership program in Web and Media 2.0 that operated under the brand name TransMission.
    • Eric T. - Internet Duct Tape – My name is Eric and I am a Canadian engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering. I’m a fan of automation and using computers to do the heavy lifting so I don’t have to. I have the typical engineer’s desire to put a square peg in a round hole just to see if it’s possible. Internet Duct Tape is about that Frankenstein-like philosophy of making things work together that were never meant to.
    • Victor Agreda – DIY Life – One of my favorite blogs to just read and learn about different ways to do things myself :) . As you guessed, Victor doesn’t have a bio on the site either, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking out the blog!
    • Steve Garfield – Steve Garfield’s Video Blog – Steve Garfield is a video blogger based in Boston, Massachusetts. Garfield is one of the Internet’s first video bloggers having launched his own regular video blog on January 1, 2004. Garfield likes to capture and share fleeting moments and teach others how to do the same. This led to his becoming co-creator of the first vloggercon, and a co-organizer of the first PodCamp held in Boston. He currently runs the Boston Media Makers. Steve Garfield’s Video Blog features “The Carol & Steve Show” and “Vlog Soup.” On February 3, 2005, Garfield posted what is believed to be the first video blog from a United States elected politician, Boston City Councillor John Tobin. Garfield is currently a regular contributor to Rocketboom and a co-host of the New Mediacracy podcast.
    • Grant Robertson – Download Squad – Grant has written professionally since early 2001, and as an amateur since 1997. For Weblogs, Inc. Grant previously served as Lead Editor of The Digital Music Weblog; Increasing web traffic by 150% during his 6 month
      tenure. Grant has also written for high-profile open-source community sites, Linux.com and Newsforge.com under the direction of former Slashdot editors Robin Miller and Emmett Plant. Grant’s earliest published articles appeared in privately published gray-hat “hacker” zines, under a variety of pseudonyms, beginning around 1998
     

    • Bathroom Hero 8.17 am on 14.12.2007 Permalink

      congrats on making the list!

    • ms danielle 11.59 am on 15.12.2007 Permalink

      that’s a pretty incredible list… you truly are “the legendary”! :D

    • Deborah 1.41 pm on 16.12.2007 Permalink

      Congrats on being included in the list of such reputable bloggers Gary! I wasn’t informed at the time as to who was going to be featured in the book.

      Have you received your copy yet? Considering it’s already available at the retail level, I’m surprised I haven’t.

      There were a couple of things that I was misquoted for about getting links, and not leaving comments even after proofing and being told the changes were made. It made me cringe a bit to read the published copy didn’t have the changes.

      Reading your write-up of my site was a good reminder that I have to update my About page ;-) Thanks for including me in your review.

      I’m looking forward to reading what you and others had to say.

    • Gary Lee 9.55 am on 17.12.2007 Permalink

      Thanks for dropping by Deborah . . . . Shoemoney told me he had some problems with the publisher as well, which is why he requested to be removed from the book totally. I haven’t received my copy yet, but I will contact them soon to see what’s going on . . .

    • Ms. Q 7.54 am on 18.12.2007 Permalink

      Congratulations! I know, it’s been ages since I’ve visited and I’m glad to see the new look (for me at least!) and that you’re being featured in a book! Wow!

    • Zac Johnson 8.29 pm on 18.12.2007 Permalink

      awesome on making the list! looking forward to reading it!

    • Bruce from the Bookshop Blog 8.50 pm on 23.12.2007 Permalink

      Hi Gary,

      I’m reading the book right now and enjoying it quite a bit. If nothing else (and there in fact is quite a bit else) it will prompt bloggers to take what they do more seriously. I think after reading the book most will pay more attention to their own quality and read other blogs mush more frequently. Kudos to a book that should improve the blogosphere.

      Bruce
      The Bookshop Blog

    • Deborah 6.28 pm on 28.01.2008 Permalink

      Hey Gary,

      That certainly doesn’t sound comforting that Shoemoney pulled out of this book. A friend will be sending me a copy soon. I’ll keep you posted once I receive it.

    • Alice Teh 7.34 am on 01.09.2008 Permalink

      Hi Gary, congrats on making the list! I’ve just finished reading the book and did a book review.

      For now, my blog is for keeping in touch with what my friends are up to and vice versa. It’s pretty much like your initial blogging. :)

      I do agree with you that a quality article is something that plants a seed in the mind of the reader. In this case, the book is a great sum of articles!

  • Gary Lee 10.18 am on 10.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Getting Taken for a Ride – Thanks Agloco! 

    missdaisy.png
    Guess which one is Agloco?

    I don’t think many people know this, but I got into blogging on wordpress because of Agloco. I wanted to create a quick and easy website where I could put up content and start ranking for certain keywords and WordPress was by far the best software I could find. The site was called Agloco101.com and I’m sure you’ll find some references of it in this blog. Once I learned about it from John Chow, I did all that I could to get the site some publicity and even wrote out a newsletter campaign to get people excited about the product. I ended up doing pretty well and then discovered the ease of using wordpress, so that is why I relaunched MrGaryLee.com to what it is today!So now . . . Agloco is Dead! I definitely feel like I was taken for a ride, but I will never say I regretted my decision to try it because that’s what an entrepreneur should do, try things. It was fun watching it grow and dreaming of all the money that would be coming in, but I knew in the back of my mind that there was more of a chance for it to fail than for it to succeed, so I can honestly say, I’m not too disappointed today. I’m just glad the day has finally come. Here’s a quick look at where I am with Agloco right now. I spent a few bucks on PPC advertising, but after that, it was the power of the network that grew it out.

    picture-3.png

     

    • Jez 12.32 pm on 10.12.2007 Permalink

      Sorry it didn’t work out for you… my glass was always half empty on agloco … seemed to me everyone wanted a network but nobody wanted the tool-bar …

    • 30 Day Man 6.24 pm on 10.12.2007 Permalink

      Hi Gary,

      Can you and your readers help me digg this post into orbit?

      (Its relating to the Chow vs Digg)

      http://www.aimsgraz.org/2007/12/8-breeds-of-digger-when-nerds-attack-on.html

      Appreciate it.

      Cheers,
      30 Day Man

    • nishu 1.08 am on 11.12.2007 Permalink

      Damn Itght i will give it a try later .. n now its gone ..

    • ms danielle 6.23 pm on 11.12.2007 Permalink

      i don’t get how they made money in 1999 (and tanked of course) and they go bust in 2007… sigh…

    • suicidalsam 6.32 pm on 11.12.2007 Permalink

      did u receive any money at all from agloco?
      I tried it for a couple of weeks and accumulated 5 hours then I was just too bored using it.

    • Gary Lee 12.50 am on 12.12.2007 Permalink

      i gotta admit . . i was all about the network and I hated installing the toolbar . . that should have been a sign, huh?

    • Gary Lee 12.53 am on 12.12.2007 Permalink

      that’s pretty spammish don’t you think?

    • Jez 3.12 am on 14.12.2007 Permalink

      Thats really poor….

    • Jez 3.21 am on 14.12.2007 Permalink

      1999 was the beginning of the dot con era… lots of scammers made money back then… and IMO Agloco was a scam… a classic pyramid scheme ….

    • Jay, writer MemberSpeed.com 5.48 pm on 16.12.2007 Permalink

      If you fail, try and try again. This is probably one of the oldest and yet most taken for granted saying I have ever known in my life. It’s one of the easiest rules to remember but hardly anybody sticks to it. While I am not too familiar with Agloco (and it seems like not a lot of people hold the same positive sentiment as you), I do think it is important the way you stressed that everything is an opportunity. That’s the way to success.

  • Gary Lee 11.37 am on 06.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Teamwork starts with One Person – You! 

    Gung HoLooks like Sam Sethi is having a little trouble with BlogNation.com. Promising payments to bloggers for content and then not paying them can usually do that. This just makes me think of all the “blog networks” out there that have tried similar models and not succeeded. Usually, it starts with an “ideas guy” who is great at selling the idea to other bloggers, but then never contributes to the actual development of the site. This kind of “bait and switch” usually never works because the passion for the project is hard to transfer 100% from the “ideas guy” to the rest of the team.

    Personally, I think when it comes to forming a team with other bloggers from around the world, each member of the team must have earned their stripes first before trying to benefit from being part of the team. By earning stripes (and this is for bloggers only), I’m talking about stuff like:

    • - Going through the late nights of installing your wordpress software 5 or more times because you didn’t quite understand .htaccess
    • - Going through hundreds of pages of WordPress themes to finally find the one you like
    • - Spending hours pressing Control+Z or Apple+Z because that piece of code is being a pain in the ass
    • - Signing up for every social bookmarking tool out there and submitting your own articles
    • - Chatting for hours with people in norway and turkey to develop relationships and exchange ideas
    • - Paying it forward and helping out other new bloggers
    • - Proving your worth by writing great posts

    There are so many more things I could say, but I’m sure you know what I’m getting at. The biggest reason people need to earn their stripes is that it makes it easier to relate to others from around the world. Now that the world has gotten so much smaller, it seems to me that along with the language of science, there is the language of blogging. If you can laugh over some similar experiences, then you’re taking the first steps to earing your stripes!

    P.S. Anyone want to admit to watching “Gung Ho” featuring Michael Keaton? That movie was great . . . . it’s all about “GOOD TEAM!”

     

    • James Pegram 3.34 pm on 06.12.2007 Permalink

      Ok let’s see, the only ones I’ve not accomplished would be. I’ve never talked to anyone in Turkey or Norway (that I know of ) and proving my worth by writing great articles. I think I write some pretty good articles but I suppose I’m biased. As for “Gung Ho”, I ain’t admitting to nothing.. Good post Gary.

    • ronnie ferez 8.12 pm on 06.12.2007 Permalink

      The post title said it well.

      Teamwork is the key ingredient in a successful web or blog network. Without which, the network dies even before it started.

      IMO, sam failed to put his money where his mouth is. And failing to pay on time, worst not being paid at all, is a very serious setback, and I doubt if he could recover with that.

    • Jez 9.49 am on 08.12.2007 Permalink

      I buy content quite a lot, at a cash rate per article… when I have written stuff it has always been on the same basis.

      I have considered offering authors cuts of sites instead of imediate cash payment but decided against it… way too messy….

  • Gary Lee 8.08 am on 06.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    C’MOOOOOOOONNNNNN 

    The final scene in one of my favorite movies of all time. The point at which they “anted up” and “kicked in like men!” . . . . “LIKE MEN!”

     

  • Gary Lee 8.08 am on 04.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Utilizing the Keyword Insertion Feature 

    An easily overlooked feature when starting a pay per click campaign is the keyword insertion tool, which allows keywords in your campaign to be dynamically inserted into your ad copy based on the user’s search phrases. This can save you a lot of time if you have a site with many products and it can also increase your click-through rate for your advertisements which improve your overall quality score at the end of the day.

    insertkw.png

    Don’t be lazy and not take the time to find a default tagline that is consistent with all the keywords in your group. This is a great time to set up an ad group just for your specific products. Also, don’t forget to leverage Alt Text for the high volume and generic keywords. Lastly, always “TEST! TEST! TEST” because what works for most people maybe not work for you. Compare your CTR of the ads with keyword insertion versus Ads that don’t have keyword insertion.

     

  • Gary Lee 10.44 am on 03.12.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Love Turning 30 

    Turning 30This weekend I celebrated my 30th birthday and amazingly, I didn’t crumble into fetal position and become depressed about my life. Instead, I looked forward to my birthday with friends and family and celebrated the successes and accomplishments in my life rather than complaining about what I don’t have. This was suppose to be more of a post reflecting on my life, but that gets too boring, so I’m just going to write about things I would tell an “under-30″ about reach the point of “after-30.” I’d like to call it:

    Things I’ve learned over the years:

    A Night of Drinking takes away a Day of your Life

    When there’s a valley, there’s always a peak.

    You are who you surround yourself with.

    There are friends, then acquaintances, & then people you just don’t need in your life.

    It’s more productive waking up early, then waking up late.

    Take more risks when you have Less Responsibilities.

    A broken heart is a healthy heart.

    Money doesn’t buy Happiness, but it does buy time!

    It’s never too early to say “thank you!”

    I think that’s it for now. I know I had more yesterday on my actual birthday, but with the hangover and everything, I just couldn’t think. =). I just can’t wait to turn 40 so I can look back at my life and smile some more.

    Is there anything you want to add to the list? What lessons have you learned throughout your life? Are you looking forward to “old age?”

     

    • knupNET 10.48 am on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy Birthday… I turned 29 over the weekend so I’m right behind ya… Enjoy your site and your feed!

    • Gary Lee 11.01 am on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy Birthday! . . . . and thanks for reading!

    • Andy 12.05 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      ha ha. “A Night of Drinking takes away a Day of your Life”

      So TRUE! You can no longer recover like you did in college.

    • Saman Sadeghi 12.08 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy birthday bud!

    • JW 12.42 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      happy birthday! i was celebrating my bday during the weekend too. mines 11/29. cheers for sagitarriusses

    • Hone 1.25 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Hey Gary what day? Mine was the 2nd. Happy Birthday.

      I thought I was turning 33 for the last 3 months but then my friend said I was actually turning 32 so I’m so stoked that I’m actually a year younger than I thought I was.

    • Tezza 6.20 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy Belated 30th Birthday!!!

      Loved the quote: A Night of Drinking takes away a Day of your Life…i think we’ve all been there, more often than we care to remember.

    • Gyutae Park 7.31 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Haha, you’re still in your prime dude. The site redesign looks awesome btw.

    • Gary Lee 9.02 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      i think i might have to edit it to “takes away 2 days of your life”

    • Gary Lee 9.03 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Thanks man . . Happy Belated Birthday to you too!

    • Gary Lee 9.05 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      we should get together soon for some Korean BBQ in Ktown or something . . . happy bday man!

    • Gary Lee 9.06 pm on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      thanks gyutae, I’ll try to remember that when it’s 1230a and I’m starting to feel sleepy :) . . . as for the design, remember I told you that it was coming first :) . . .

    • The Artist 6.52 am on 04.12.2007 Permalink

      Hey Gary!

      Happy birthday!! Hope you had a wonderful and memorable day!!! Birthday celebrations no long last a “day” but a weekend, huh? lol

      I’ve finally got my post on my iPhone contest win up, so I’ll email the link to you! Thanks so much!

    • Nick Ramsay 7.30 am on 04.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy Birthday Gary. Welcome to my decade!

    • Hannes 4.44 pm on 04.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy birthday Gary.

      Some good points you got there :) I’ll keep them in mind.

      Yeah, I don’t get why so many people are obsessed with age… Glad to see you’re so positive about turning 30.

      I look forward to your “I’m finally 40 whoo-hoo!!!” post ;)

    • betshopboy 7.43 pm on 05.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy Birthday dude! Welcome to the 30s club.

      It ain’t no productive to wake up early if you sleep late.
      How about early to bed and early to rise?

      Money isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing! LOL!!

      It’s never too late to say “sorry”.

    • Darin Carter 12.15 pm on 06.12.2007 Permalink

      Happy Birthday … WOW your getting old … LOL

      Darin

  • Gary Lee 12.00 pm on 30.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Welcome John Chow Readers! 

    This is Mr. Gary Lee and I’d like to welcome readers who have found their way from JohnChow.com. I have been blogging since February of this year and have tried my best to share my experiences in internet marketing. I currently work as an Internet Marketing Analyst for a health company in Southern California along with running an internet consulting service with my business partner – Ms. Danielle.

    To give you a better idea of who I am and what I usually share on this blog, here is a list of some of my reader’s favorite posts. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe to my blog here!

    John Chow’s Top 10 Blogging Mistakes – Part I

    Click Per Pay – Building your Keywords Backwards

    10 Steps to Getting Links for Non-Bloggers

    Top 10 Blogging Topics

    Blog Questions answered by Shoemoney

    Japanese People are funnier than you think

    Becoming a Blogging Hero

    Giving away an iPhone

    The Home of the Infamous Technorati Link Train

    Understanding the new Link Building Strategy

    Internet Marketing for People who care about Internet Marketing - Subscribe Now!

     

  • Gary Lee 10.20 pm on 28.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    A Bunch of Baird Bums 

    I’ve always been a movie buff and one of the biggest reasons why is to build to the climax of the movie and then watch the artistry of the actors and directors put together a moment that is ingrained in our memories forever. I’m going to try and find more of these clips and if you have any favorite clips, please share!

     

  • Gary Lee 8.10 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Linking Up With The Outside World 

    As the internet continues to move at lightening quick pace, each and everyday that you are not actively promoting your site is a day wasted. These lost days mean lost customers, lost income and potentially the loss of recurring income – the jewel in the crown of any online business. So what can you do to ensure that you are out there, actively being promoted in all of the right places?

    While many people may not have heard of them, Link Brokers are fast becoming the help of choice for many webmasters eager to make a name for their sites and themselves. So what exactly can a Link Broker do for you? Are they worth the price and how do they work?

    As the name suggests a Link Broker will arrange links to your website, but this description does not do the industry justice. There is no point linking to the wrong websites if you are looking to rise up the ranking, fifty PR1 site links means nothing in this game when one PR7 site link could give you that push up the rankings into the big league. Don’t waste your money on weak links, weak anchor text and weak keywords as this will only ensure that slowly but surely your business is bled dry.

    A Link Broker will do all of the hard work for you, checking out the realistic goals for your site, the niche markets and costing this against what you have to offer. There is no point aiming for a market which is dominated by the majors, the companies who spend millions marketing their sites – you won’t have a chance of competing with them. Niche markets, popular keywords and an array of high PR webmaster contacts are the way ahead, the kind of experience and contact base which cannot be created over night.

    As in any industry you need to ensure that you are working with the best, a Link Broker who has been there done it and has the track record to prove it. Talk is cheap in an industry where results speak louder than words, an industry where Google page 2 will see you die, but Google first page position 1 will put you in a different league. Research has shown that unless you are in the top 5 on Google page one for your chosen keyword or phrase you will be fighting for the scraps – but even then, under top spot and you will not see the full potential of the traffic available.

    Ignore all of the hype from the likes of Google as it is obvious that link building is the way forward, it brings you traffic and it can give you a massive boost in the rankings. Why are Google trying to muddy the waters with this market? Simple, they cannot control it and they don’t like it!

    Sam Allcock is a search engine enthusiast from the UK and runs a consulting service called http://www.Leadsbroker.co.uk . I have personally used his services and can highly recommend him as one of the best in his field. Be the first 5 to mention MrGaryLee.com and you’ll get a free blog review from Sam. Everyone else after will receive a 25% discount off consulting fees.

     

    • Matt 3.53 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      If you rely on Google (or any search engine, for that matter) to keep your business running, then there’s something wrong with your business…

    • Jon Lee 6.11 pm on 27.11.2007 Permalink

      I’m loving the new theme Gary!

    • sam 4.07 am on 28.11.2007 Permalink

      Google is one of many ways to do business.

  • Gary Lee 8.09 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Launching a New Affiliate System during the Holidays 

    It’s not every day that a new Pay Per Click program comes along, so when John Chow announced his new TTZ Media Affiliates program, I was very interested in learning how I can make money from it. Basically, the TTZMedia Affiliates program is a hacked version of Shopping.com’s API courtesy of the brilliant Jeff Kee and compared to other pay per click program, it looks like it offers one of the best Ad Creative Generators I’ve seen.

    From my discussions with John Chow, it looks like the payouts will be $0.15 through $0.30 per click. On top of this, TTZ Media also has a subaffiliate program where you can earn 10% of every thing your subaffiliates earn. It’s a pretty basic affiliate program where John is relying on his knowledge of the ad conversion rates to make his money at the end of the day.

    So, the key to making money on TTZ Media Affiliates is to build a site with a high click through rate to take advantage of the payouts. Once the site is built, all you have to do is find traffic and point them to your site. To take the pain of building a site out of the equation, I have made a basic template which I believe has the highest click through rate possible.

    Take a Look and you can see what I’m talking about – http://www.DaytimeDeals.com

    If you have an extra slot in your hosting package, why not go find a nice domain and upload this site to your hosting package so you can start making money today? Just sign up here – http://www.daytimedeals.com/apply.php and follow the instructions and you’ll have a site running in no time.

    To help with our signups, Ms. Danielle, Greg Morgan of BCM Blog and I are going to give away an additional THREE iPod Shuffles – Red, Silver and Green – on top of John Chow’s 2 22″ LCD Screens. Here are the rules to enter:

    red-ipod.pngsilver-ipod.pnggreen-ipod.png

    1) Sign up through http://www.daytimedeals.com/apply.php – We’ll use the email you signed up for to announce the winner. (You can ONLY apply through this link. DO NOT APPLY anywhere else for TTZ Media)

    That’s it! BUT, if you’d like to have more entries into the contest -

    2) Blog about our contest and John Chow’s contest (this gets you two entries from John).

    3) Refer someone under you and get one entry per qualified referral from John Chow.

    American ExpressTraffic Tip – In order to help you get some free traffic, we have found a great credit card rewards deal through American Express. Basically, if you’re a small business owner or a sole proprietorship, you can sign up for the American Express and receive 40,000 points. I’ve checked out the rewards program and the one you should take advantage of is the 2 $100 Amex Gift Cards you can get for those 40,000 free points. I know there are some rules and regulations to getting the points, but if it was anything like last time, I don’t think it’s anything too crazy. Just make sure to check them out for your own good. Once you get the gift cards, go ahead and buy some traffic from Adwords, Yahoo or Adbrite at like $0.05-$0.10 a click , depending on what your click through rates are.

     

    • Prija 2.21 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      nice.. ill sign up tomorrow..

      you been tagged.

      http://bloggingthemovie.com/nofollow-link-train-contest/

    • bloggernoob 7.05 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      i’ve found pay per click don’t work well on make money blogs. you think ttz will be any different?

    • Stephen 11.59 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      TTZ media does double digit % click through rates for me at Futurelooks. But it only does single digits on my personal blog. It will likely be even lower if your blog is extremely targeted towards making money online. Unless of course, your blog is about making enough money online to buy XZY product (insert TTZ Ad here). If you can make it relevant to your site somehow, you can increase your click through %.

      On that note, I’m really surprised that Gary didn’t insert a TTZ Media ad with the current pricing and stock of iPod Shuffles into this post. That’s leaving money on the table. Bad Gary! :lol: ;)

    • Gary Lee 5.20 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      cool deal prija . . . maybe you can bring back cashforcomments . . . cashforclicks????

    • Gary Lee 5.22 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      CTR is definitely affected by the quality of traffic and the type of layout you have on your site . . . and the reason I didn’t put an ad up is because i wanted people to WIN the ipod shuffle instead of buying one for themselves :) . . . . i’ll try my best to get the most clicks from daytimedeals.com . . .

    • Stephen 6.44 pm on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      Yeah, but you put the ad up to dangle the carrot in front of people. If people know that the prize is worth “X” amount of dollars, then they are more likely to enter. I don’t have a double digit click through rate for nothing ya know ;)

    • sam 5.55 am on 27.11.2007 Permalink

      Hi Gary.. Looks good.

      Will design myself a new site and try it out. Take care.

      Sam

    • knupNET 10.50 am on 03.12.2007 Permalink

      Has this contest ended?

  • Gary Lee 7.54 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    A Long Weekend of Work 

    I’m probably different from most people as I have been looking forward to this long weekend because of the amount of time I would have to get a lot of work done. There were a lot of projects on the plate, but there were two projects that were very important to me.

    Hopefully by now, you can you see that MrGaryLee.com has been updated and upgraded with the latest design from Unique Blog Designs. I was thinking about creating a logo similar to BCMBlog.com, but after some discussion with some friends, I thought the eyes were one of my recognizable images, so I decided to keep it for now. If you want to know what the inspiration for the new design, you can just look back at the Blog World Expo posts and you probably can tell why I wanted to step up my game and get serious about blogging, starting with my design.

    Pink DealsPinkDeals v2.0 – Next, Danielle and I finally launched the new PinkDeals.net after receiving the newly designed template from Nate Whitehill and his crew at Unique Blog Designs last weekend. I came back from my Thanksgiving Dinner and once I saw the amount of traffic the original PinkDeals was receiving, I wanted to get the new PinkDeals up and running as soon as possible, so I stayed up til 3am working on transferring the appropriate files to the PinkDeals server to get it up and running for Black Friday. Once it was launched, we saw some great improvements in some key metrics of the site – i.e. Percentage of Direct Traffic, Bounce Rate, and Page Views per Visitor! Black Friday turned into one of the highest traffic days Pink Deals has ever experienced. It goes to show how much design can influence the amount of total traffic your site can receive. Thanks again to the crew at UBD for putting up a great product and also providing us with the  help necessary to get all our plugins working correctly. We’re looking forward to the upcoming holiday season and if you could do us a favor, just spread the word to your lady friends out there and just let them know about the new Women’s Deals Site called Pink Deals dot net!

    So, what do you think of the new designs? I know there are going to be some tweaking that I will have to do, but let’s hear what you have to say!

    By the way, if you’re serious about blogging, what are you waiting for? Contact the crew that designed blogs for Shoemoney, John Chow, Darin Carter and Greg Morgan (just to name a few) -  Unique Blog Designs!

     

    • ジェイソン (Jason) 9.15 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      I like the new design. It’s clean and easy to read. Congrats to the people at Unique Blog Designs for putting together another winning theme.

      It might just be time to invest in a redesign myself … :P

    • 30 Day Man 12.15 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Nice theme Gary.

      The Unique Blog Design guys are doing some great work, just wish they supported other platforms other than WordPress – ie; Blogger.com

      Cheers,
      Adam

    • Fare soldi online 6.34 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Great design, kudos Gary.

      I visited also the Pink deals blog, man it looks an awesome idea.

      I wonder how do you get the deals.

      I have an Italian blog and I would like to start a new blog like Pink deals in Italian but I do not know where to get the deals from :) !

      Let me know, email me if you want!

      Thanks
      Francesco

    • Dave Davis 8.07 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Looks amazing Gary! The lads at UBD did a fantastic job.

    • Gary Lee 10.33 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Jason . . you hit the nail on the head . . . “invest” is the perfect word to describe what you’ll be doing . . .

    • Gary Lee 10.33 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      actually . . . i talked to Nate and he said they are going to be opening up their themes for other platforms, so you should definitely go ahead and ask them to help you out. Let me know how it goes . .

    • The Kid 10.57 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Looking good boss, i better see you online tomo, sorry your football games and deals on electronics have distracted me, i am weak, oh so weak!

    • Gary Lee 11.01 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      yes . . our games and deals can do that to you . . . just imagine what our women can do!

    • Gary Lee 11.02 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Thanks Dave . . . i really can’t take that much credit since it was Nate’s design and their new coder Chris who did all the work . . . i was thinking about modeling my site after your blog too . . . .

    • FreeCrunch 2.40 pm on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      The site looks fantastic! Good job indeed!

    • Nate Whitehill 3.17 pm on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Sweet theme dude!

    • Jeff Kee 8.33 pm on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Looks good!

    • Gary Lee 12.35 am on 26.11.2007 Permalink

      I get these deals from affiliate sites like commission junction and linkshare . . . feel free to contact me if you need help setting it up . .

  • Gary Lee 1.53 pm on 22.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for . . . 

    Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I know this is mainly an holiday in the United States as our Neighbors up north celebrate their thanksgiving in October. I’m pretty sure every country has a day where they look back and give thanks for what they have in their lives.

    I want to give thanks for:

    My Family – I’m especially thankful that my family is doing better than ever after such hard times before.

    My Health – even with a slight stone in my kidney

    My Friends – without them, I wouldn’t be the person I am today with the opportunities I have today.

    Everything else that has happen this year has been great. I never would have thought I would be where I am today in regards to my career and the whole blogosphere. I can’t wait for the new year to start.

    Now I got to go to Grandma’s and chow down!

     

  • Gary Lee 2.08 pm on 20.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Reasons You Shouldn’t Be a Blogger 

    Since I just wrote a post about taking the leap of faith to start blogging, I wanted to also talk about who shouldn’t be blogging in today’s blogosphere. Just like everything else in life, it’s not cut out for everyone. Here are some points I came up with that I tell my clients when they start off with

    “hey you know that blogging thing . . . I want to do something like that . . . “

    This is how I respond:

    If you don’t have anyone in your office who can consistently update your blog, the you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you aren’t comfortable with your company being totally open due to trade secrets or what not, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you have nothing to say other than the regurgitation of industry news, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you don’t have any important information to tell your customers, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    If you don’t have the time to read other blogs and know your industry, then you shouldn’t be a blogger.

    That’s what I got for now. Do you have any other questions I should be asking?

     

    • Jez 2.34 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      Dont blog if you cant keep your mouth shut!

      Think that is my biggest problem… has got me into scrapes a couple of times and probably held me back…

    • Mobile Notary 3.12 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      How are you writing skills? Is an excellent question. If you don’t know how to use proper grammar then take a class or don’t blog.

    • Jez 3.35 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      John Chows grammer isn’t great… I read a lot of blogs by Eastern European’s / Latin American’s, their English is not great either… it really depends on the topic, and how well the author knows it… but I suppose if your talking about promoting a native-English speaking business then your statement is broadly true….

    • Hannes Johnson 4.09 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      I don’t think grammar and spelling is that vital. If the content is good and people can (easily) understand what you’re trying to say then I think it shouldn’t hold you back. Like Jez says, John Chow is a great example ;)

    • Dave Davis 11.05 pm on 21.11.2007 Permalink

      Great points Gary, an excellent checklist/flowchart to scope out the potential for integrating blogging into an online marketing campaign.

      We actually have a question in our needs analysis document that asks if the company would consider blogging. The response is about 99% yes, but the question after asks if they could dedicate someone to post at least once a week and the answer is about 99% no!

      Blogging in my opinion offers some of the highest ROI when it comes to promotion due to the relative minimum investment required (only time). Most people fail to measure the ROI from their blog or even see it as investment.

      I’ll be stealing some of your points…verbatim. ;)

    • Daniel 11.06 am on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      Since I have a journalism background, I think that if you’re going to blog in a given language, you should at least know how to communicate clearly in that language.

      Marketers have some of the best blogs out there, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find simple grammar or syntax errors on them.

    • Gary Lee 5.16 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      I agree with Hannes . . . . I mean, my grammar stinks and I never got anything above a B+ in English Literature in High School . . . as long as you can write in a way where you can convey the message you want to convey, then I think you’ll be all good . . .

    • Gary Lee 5.16 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      remember . . it’s all about the delivery :)

    • Gary Lee 5.18 pm on 24.11.2007 Permalink

      haha . . do I sense an lil bit of journalistic snobbery against bloggers? . . oh wait, is “snobbery” even a word? ;)

    • Daniel 2.13 pm on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Ha. Can’t one be both a journalist and a blogger? A “blogalist,” even?

      And yes, “snobbery” is a word! Durr…

  • Gary Lee 8.08 am on 20.11.2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Take the Blog Leap! It feels great in here! 

    I don’t know about you, but one of the only people in my group of friends who keeps a blog. My friends say it’s because I’m more tech-savvy or internet-savvy than they are, some even say it’s because I have a big mouth and I eventually need to find new people to talk to. Maybe they’re right, but most likely they’re not. I started blogging because I wanted to learn. Plain and Simple.

    So, do you want to learn? Do you want to interact with like-minded people who can help you professionally and maybe some times, personally? Then let’s start laying the foundation of what you need to do to get ready for the blogosphere:

    1) Find Blogs of Interest and Subscribe – I’d suggest going to Technorati and doing a search for your interests, whether it be business, sports, politics, relationships, hollywood gossip or commentary on world news. Once you find these blogs, use a RSS Reader (What is RSS?) and subscribe to them so you can get a feel for how they deliver their messages.

    2) Practice Blogging on hosted blog services like Blogspot, Typepad or WordPress - Don’t get too used to it as I’m not a big fan of serious bloggers putting their blogs up on hosted blog services because in the long run, you don’t gain as much as you could in terms of potential market exposure. Get used to writing about your interests and create a schedule that you are comfortable with. Don’t forget to learn how to post links and photos on your blog. The layout of an article is very important and I would suggest looking at high quality magazine’s to see what I’m talking about.

    3) Don’t be afraid to ask for help – Getting started with a blog can some times be very difficult. I never could have got this blog off the ground if it wasn’t the help of some really knowledgeable people who gave me hints on plug-ins, offered post ideas and/or contributed to my blog by writing a thought provoking comment. I’ll be more than happy to help, so go ahead and ask me first if you’d like.

    At the end of the day, the blogosphere is a great place to express your opinions and share your experiences with people from around the world. No one’s going to say anything if it’s not for you. You never know until you try, so get out there and just do it. Then let me know so I can subscribe to your RSS!

    Good Luck!

     

    • Andy 11.21 am on 20.11.2007 Permalink

      I never really understood how in depth this whole “blogging” thing really was. I started out just to see what it was all about in relation to traffic building. Then all of sudden, I was hooked. From the social media to the monetization of your site, it definitely was a HUGE learning curve. Now that I’m in, I am definitely in for the long haul. It’s funny how you find sites too. I believe I nabbed your RSS feed after reading about your site getting hacked on John Cow. Been one of the 378 ever since.

    • The Monetizer 10.18 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      Gary, you’ve gained a new subscriber here. Great content on your blog. I agree too..biggest mistake I’ve made in blogging is sticking with blogspot rather than self-hosting, but for money’s sake it seems to work. Keep up the great work here..

    • Gary Lee 10.53 am on 25.11.2007 Permalink

      thanks for the compliments monetizer . . . i think you could always start another site in the background and switch it when you’re ready . . if you did it once, you can do it again!

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