Just Thinkin' » advertising http://just-thinkin.net Thoughts and Ramblings of a Disabled Vet Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:01:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=8713 Tags and Categories-Tagged Again! Part II http://just-thinkin.net/2007/11/tags-and-categories-tagged-again-part-ii/ http://just-thinkin.net/2007/11/tags-and-categories-tagged-again-part-ii/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:39:47 +0000 Kirk M http://just-thinkin.net/2007/11/tags-and-categories-tagged-again-part-ii/ Continue reading →]]> Required reading:

Many thanks to . This absolutely horrendous, disjointed post is all his fault but he’ll probably blame it on .

And here we go….

I seem to be getting older these days. Not only am I getting older but it seems to be becoming a habit, a perpetual thing if you will. Knowing full well that it’s always a changing world out there, I began to feel that dreaded sensation of old(er) age that life was beginning to pass me by. I just didn’t seem to be attracted to all that new and interesting stuff out there. A mere 5 years ago, life at home was nothing like it is now and things like having a PC and being connected to the Internet hadn’t been part of my life for at least 4 years at that point. When I finally came to live with my honey in old Stove Pipe City, I was more than way behind as far as the old WWW was concerned and my disabilities from my time in the service had begun to take their toll. In short, my health was lousy.

But being a veteran of the Cold War, serving as one of those strange, stubborn, thickheaded, tenacious, twisted breeds of Navy men called submariners (who are always on the best bad behavior), it didn’t take too long to pick myself back up from the stresses of taking care of my folks, getting back to work and start building my life back up again. I even enrolled in the VA and let me tell you, life as a veteran hasn’t been the same since.

Even so, every night I still dreamed of the ocean mist in my face as I stood watch on the bridge of that submarine during the rare times we were surfaced, watching the reflections of the sky dancing on the surface of the water and thinking how beautiful the day was and of all the destruction those nuclear weapons we and other subs carried hidden from sight under the ocean could do to this world, erasing these beautiful days forever. One saving grace was that my boat was a “fast attack” and our job was to prevent just such a thing from happening…and we did.

We pause from this utterly disjointed, meandering post in order to change the subject entirely…

An oddball and an “off the subject” thing I might mention (so I can use up several tags at once) is that I was born in 1959 and this makes me one of those boomers. In fact a lot of these folks my age and up go around advertising this fact quite a lot lately and even more of the same age that hate the word boomer and spend a lot of time making sure everyone knows it. And strangely enough a lot of these folks have blogs out on the WWW. In fact, we have a regular blogging community having adventures in SEO, metrics systems advertising and spam protection using Akismet and Spam Karma. They’re blogging about the going green, clean energy, global warming, warm winters, the weather and hernias. A lot of them also have WordPress installs because they decided to “do it themselves” no less and these bloggers have learned all about wp plugins and the havoc a bad one can cause, upgrading from WordPress 2.1 to WordPress 2.2 to WordPress 2.3 and hacking their own themes. So who says you have to be young to do this?

I find these blogs to be the best reading around with a ton of great info and insight to be found. A regular digital democracy by jeezum!

I call these folks (and myself) BC Bloggers (Before Computers).

We now return you to more of the same boring nonsense as before…

So one morning, shortly before the holidays, while reading a new Yankee Magazine I found myself taking interest in my surroundings again and with a gift of a digital camera from my wonderful lady, my fascination with gadgets came flooding back. Another item I received also helped peak that fascination was my first set of hearing aids. One disability I ended up with from my time spent poking holes in the ocean was being deaf and since this particular form of deafness is self perpetuating, I began to realize that if I was going to hold down a job, I needed to be able to hear. Logical thinking on my part I thought.

By the way, do me a favor and don’t call me hearing impaired please. I’m deaf…period! Thank you very much.

And so came my first pair of hearing aids (complete with remote control no less) and life in general changed drastically–I now could hear the comments made behind my back. Made life at work a great deal more interesting for those so called friends of mine and their brilliant ideas. All of a sudden they found themselves on the business end of my subtle, dry, sarcastic wit and humor as I quietly stabbed them with their own misc nonsense.

Getting back to what I was saying…at home with the cats, I was just thinkin’ on how I just might finally want to get me that new computer so with hearing aids in my ears I began to peruse the local community at large to see if there was anywhere nearby where I might do this. Okay…there wasn’t. Up here in the Northeast Kingdom by the Canadian border where the local environment, the seasons and the amenities thereof hasn’t changed for the last 50-60 years, I decided the only way to get this new PC was to order it online. My lady was nice enough to let me use her computer to do so.

Too make an already too long post short…

Six months later, DSL finally came to our area (yup, 2004 and all we had was dial up) and with DSL…the blog was born and I was back in business with all my backwoods tech yearnings at full steam. Of course I started with a first post and quickly followed with a few misc posts but then went on to more specific subjects like absentmindedness, at which I excel, posts about space and science and basically ending up wandering all over the place with my various ramblings which entirely confused any readers that happened to stop by thus establishing my reputation as a complete knee biter. Google became my best friend and I even managed to take on a few blog projects put forth by Liz Strauss. I managed to survive them as well (just kidding Liz).

I wrote up posts about my lady’s Long Meadow Farms Quilts (her long time quilting business), quilts, quilting and stained glass. Just so you know, I test each new quilt that she makes by sleeping under it. Good God, I hope she doesn’t read this.

Things have slowed me down of course. I spent quite awhile at the VA hospital in Boston, MA for an endoscopy and surgery for instance and while I was there I spent the initial recovery wandering around as best I could, gazing out of the various windows at the grand vista that was Jamaica Plains…okay, maybe not exactly what one would call a vista but it was better than gazing at all the old farts like me laying in bed in various stages of decomposition. That can get to you after awhile so the hallways and various lounges were the places the hospital staff often found themselves searching after they finally noticed that I had been missing for a day and a half.

Once, while gazing out one of these windows, I noticed that part of the window had been cut out and had been replaced with one of those flat panel LCD TV’s that’s replacing the old CRT sets these days. There was a live interview with an author of some best selling book going on at the time and in my slightly drugged state I remember thinking that this author guy was a real windows live writer. I found out later on that some other author, in a fit of jealous rage, tried to burn down the poor guy’s home and although the local fire department was able to save most of his property, they said it was a real scribefire.

Amazing what you can learn in a hospital. Even more amazing what one will go through to get just three more tags taken care of for the sake of two extremely bad puns.

So there you have it. After starting 3 new sites and keeping one of them, through the 1st writings of nearly 15 years ago to finally publishing on my own blog, seeing my blog referenced in the news section of the online version of Time Magazine, through snow days, spring and Springfield….I’m finally done with this unbelievably horrendous, disjointed, discombobulated, post!

I may not exactly be the person of the year, but you can just call me the ultimate tag warrior! Now where’s my pogo stick?…I’m outta here! ;)

Disclaimer: Of course a few of the tags and categories had the same name which means I really need to weed these things out and none of the tags/categories are necessarily related to the various horrendous, disjointed post subjects. And since I use these tags for my Related Posts feature I decided not to list all them at the bottom of this post for obvious reasons.

Oh yeah, and I simply could not find a way to use Firefox/Thunderbird and JT Evening News so I…wait minute, I guess I used them after all. Good deal!

Did I pass?

tag-awardUpdate 11/15/07: It has been pointed out to me that I haven’t tagged anyone with this meme yet. This was strictly due to the fact that whatever brain cells I had left fried for good after I finished this horrible thing. In short, I had to take a few narcotics and pass out on the floor. But now it’s morning and it seems not all brain cells died in the fire of the moment and since my friend stopped by to comment and had the audacity to state that she had over 100 categories and it would be too much hard work…after I managed to shoehorn over 100 tags and categories into the above post…consider yourself tagged Cat!

I also tag , and as well since I admire these ladies as writers and also because I haven’t given them any reason to harass me lately.

And yes…I was scrutinized by the originator of this meme, and I did indeed pass. Almost makes it all worth it. :P

 

]]> http://just-thinkin.net/2007/11/tags-and-categories-tagged-again-part-ii/feed/ 12 Blogging Metaphor Final List http://just-thinkin.net/2007/06/blogging-metaphor-final-list/ http://just-thinkin.net/2007/06/blogging-metaphor-final-list/#comments Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:11:20 +0000 Kirk M http://just-thinkin.net/blogging/blogging-metaphor-final-list/ Continue reading →]]> I recently took part in a group writing effort for Successful Blog in which blogger’s were asked to come up with a metaphor they thought described the art of blogging the best. The basis for this was how would you attempt to explain blogging to someone who had no idea what blogging was all about. Like, “Okay, so your a plumber? Easy! Blogging is like unclogging a drain” and then explaining why or something to that effect (forgive me, Liz). And no…I won’t elaborate on that example. Maybe later…maybe.

Anyway, the response was excellent and the posts submitted for this group effort were as individual as the writers themselves but what else would you expect? Most blogger’s tend to be human after all and you know how uniquely individual humans are. :D

They’re all good and definitely worth reading so take a break and take a look. Would someone you know understand what blogging was all about if they read these?

I decided to reprint the final list of all the entries for those who stop by here for a visit but haven’t yet met Liz Strauss and the folks at Successful Blog.

And thank you Liz for helping us keep our minds sharp. It was a lot of fun.

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]]> http://just-thinkin.net/2007/06/blogging-metaphor-final-list/feed/ 6 And The $$$ Trickles In… http://just-thinkin.net/2007/04/and-the-trickles-in/ http://just-thinkin.net/2007/04/and-the-trickles-in/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:12:28 +0000 Kirk M http://just-thinkin.net/just-thinkin/and-the-trickles-in/ Continue reading →]]> After over a year of blogging of blogging experience and assaulting the poor, unsuspecting public with the my mental processes (such as they are) I decided not too long ago to grit my teeth and put Google Adsense on the blog in hopes of making a bit of pocket change every few months. A guy’s got to learn to earn sometime ya’ know.

And so an announcement is called for here. Since I placed the small block of Google’s unobtrusive text style ads called a “Link-Unit” in the upper part of my sidebar sometime shortly before the 1st of April, I have made a grand total of $2.71!

You can all burst out in congratulation’s and back slapping now.

Thanks…it was nothing I tell you…nothing.

So in celebration of my very first bloggish type earnings and knowing full well that these little blocks of ads that don’t even amount to 1-1/2 square inches of advertising space, I have decided to string a few of these little guys along the bottom of each single post. I garauntee you’ll hardly even notice them which seems self defeating but I just can’t bring myself to to put even those text-image type Google ads all over this blog like you’re used to seeing just about everywhere else. Perhaps I’ll have to rethink this when I get the new Absolute Beginner’s WordPress blog ready to go. We’ll see.

I’m still waiting for Text Link Ads to come through with something. I haven’t reached that magical threshold between Google’s Page Rank and Alexa ranking to warrant an ad or two yet. These are also unobtrusive, text stlye ads but they come from advertisers who buy advertising space on a blog on a month per month basis. It also pays better than Google Ads but what the heck, it’s all basically an experiment in monetization right now. One of these days I might actually read all the documentation about ad placement, site optimization, channels and…well…maybe not. I blog because I enjoy it, not because I had this irresistible desire to market myself. Maybe later when I get that WordPress series near completion I’ll do a bit of studying up as it were.

Until then, my thanks to the readers who took the time to click on an ad and add a few cents to the retirement fund. :P

Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, I found the craziest little bit of “blog bling” to fit into a space at the bottom of the sidebar called “How much is your blog worth”. I have no idea how this thing works or how my much my blog’s worth is actually calculated, I just like the way it looked especially where it states that my blog is worth $18065.28. Just roll down near the bottom of the page and you’ll see old George’s face peeking out at you from the sidebar. I haven’t really found the right spot for him yet.

So…where’s the check already?

]]> http://just-thinkin.net/2007/04/and-the-trickles-in/feed/ 4 Performancing Partners to close and more. http://just-thinkin.net/2007/01/performancing-partners-to-close-and-more/ http://just-thinkin.net/2007/01/performancing-partners-to-close-and-more/#comments Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:55:42 +0000 Kirk M http://just-thinkin.net/blogging/performancing-partners-to-close-and-more/ Continue reading →]]> I just happened to pull up my pinch hit blog editor (PFF) that lives at the bottom of Firefox to see if the Performancing feeds were back on line yet (they were, after a long absence) and what to my wondering eyes did appear? Read on.

First, it appears that I will be pulling the Performancing Partners logo from my sidebar as of today. Chris Garrett, who has (had?) taken over as CEO of Performancing has had to close down The Partners Ad Network for lack of funding. The network will be shutdown as of the end of this month.

It takes a lot of guts and courage to turn away from badly needed funding (see my previous post about this albeit wise if not possibly devastating decision) when the alternative is possibly losing everything.

Here’s Chris’s post on the matter.

Submitted by Chris Garrett on January 22, 2007 – 5:00pm in Performancing Partners

I’m sad to tell you that Partners has to close. While I have every faith it could have worked, it wasn’t going to happen fast enough. Without more money invested it wasn’t going to happen at all.

Any ads currently in the system will continue to run until the end of the month at which time the ad code will stop working. Please take your ad code down from your templates then. Remaining ad time will of course be refunded.

This news is surely not going to be popular. All I can say is thank you to all the publishers and advertisers who tried the service and to all the people in the forums who provided feedback and ideas. I am gutted I couldn’t have some time to act on your suggestions.

Source: Performancing Partners to close | Performancing.com

Then in a surprise post by Nick Wilson (former CEO and now apparently taking the reins once again), he announces that Chris Garrett is leaving Performancing altogether to pursue his own projects:

Well it’s been quite a ride so far for Performancing. We’ve had to close down Metrics, but have promised to help release it as open source this year, we’ve just announced the closure of our blog advertising program, though behind the scenes some interesting discussions are being had with friends of the companies regarding that and briefly, I resigned as CEO and we had Chris takeover.

I’m sad to say that Chris has decided he’s better off working on his ongoing projects , though he will remain a part of the community and will certainly remain a good friend of the company’s.. If you’ve not caught it, I highly recommend a subscription to his personal blog at Chrisg.org. Chris ‘ formal departure will be a huge loss for us, and I in particular will be at a loss when in need of advice regarding the community here — hopefully he’ll still feel compelled to add his 2c occasionally :)

Read more…

There’s more in his post and I would recommend reading it for those who may be associated with Performancing like myself or use the Performancing blog editor extension for Firefox as I often do at times. He has interesting info on that as well.

I wish them all the best of luck and hope that they are able to at least go back to giving the sound advice they always have to the everyday blogger and how best to handle the blogging end of things. Taking back the small blog editing extension that was known as (PFF) now rebranded as ScribeFire and continuing to work on that end as well would be a bonus.

I really would hate to see them go altogether.

]]> http://just-thinkin.net/2007/01/performancing-partners-to-close-and-more/feed/ 1 Ads among us http://just-thinkin.net/2006/12/ads-among-us/ http://just-thinkin.net/2006/12/ads-among-us/#comments Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:49:54 +0000 Kirk M http://just-thinkin.net/?p=335 Continue reading →]]> Alrighty then. Looks like Performancing has got their ad network up and running and are pushing through the first test ads. Here’s an excerpt from Nick Wilson’s latest post on the subject:

We’ve just finished inputing the promised
first round of CPA (cost per action) ads into the beta “Network Ads”
program to backfill unsold ad space across the Partners network.

Right now they are very broad in topic, as this is simply a test
(but a test with the aim of making you money..), but presuming all goes
to plan, we’ll roll out more creatives and more specific targeting in
coming days.

The ads are geo targeted, so if you’re outside of the US, you may
not see too much, but visitors in the US will see ads targeted to them.
Again this is something we hope to work on if the beta test goes good.

Maybe I’ll try winning the free cruise myself. We could use a week on some beach belonging to a nice warm tropical island. Give me that Pina Colada.

I welcome any comments that you might have about the look of things. Please keep in mind that this is only a test and I can’t pick and choose any categories yet.

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