Anyone need free no obligation free web hosting?
18 Jan 2008 1 Comment
in Commerce
I just read about a company that is offering absolutely free hosting. I haven’t checked them out, but Tyler Cruz gave them a pretty thorough review. As a matter of fact, that’s one of the reasons I respect Tyler Cruz so much is that he puts so much effort into every review he does. I find it very interesting, that while everyone else is accepting less money for paid blogging, Tyler seems to be the only one that has increased his rates. IIRC, he started off charging $60 per review, and is now charging $110 per review. Personally, I think that even at that rate, he is giving his clients a great deal and I think all paid bloggers would do well to emulate his style and give the customer more than what they paid for.
Okay, I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent like this, and this is by no means a review of Tyler’s site. I just want to suggest that if you’re a blogger and you’re looking for free hosting, go read Tyler’s review, and while you’re there, take a few minutes to check out his approach to paid blogging.
Caveat: I didn’t sign up for the free hosting, and although they’re new, they seem to have a few unhappy customers out there. Personally, I would probably never put my main income generating site anyplace with less than a stellar reputation, but if your money’s tight, or if you want to test drive a concept, I’d say it would be worth it to try a free host. Besides, paying for your hosting doesn’t necessarily guarantee good service. Another favorite blog of mine, InvestorBlogger, details their recent nightmares caused by Dreamhost, their hosting company. From what I understand, Dreamhost erroneously overbilled most of their clients and had a 7.5 million dollar surplus in one day, mostly caused by improperly tapping into the bank accounts of those that had signed up for automatic payment. Dreamhost’s blog post about the situation was far from comforting and may have even alienated their customers further.
Okay, that was another tangent… getting back into the swing of blogging seems to be more challenging than I thought it would be. I need to get back in the habit of staying on topic, and work on ending a post with style.
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Did your blogging for pay plummet?
01 Dec 2007 2 Comments
in Commerce
A few months ago, I posted a few links to legitimate work at home programs. I know a lot of people think they can’t work at home if they have young children around, but check these places and find out how flexible they are. I have a relative with a young baby that is doing fairly well with one of these companies. I’m not taking pot-shots or trying to be pessimistic, but if you’re a stay at home parent that needs to make money, then you need to start thinking of worst-case scenarios in case the pay to blog market continues to drop. I am a firm believer in working hard, planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Take a look at these old posts of mine, and also, search ClarkHoward.com for other legitimate ways to make money at home.
I could get used to this very easily
16 Nov 2007 Leave a Comment
in Commerce
A few months ago, I did a paid review for a company. Apparently they changed their mind because they requested that all posts be removed by all the bloggers that had written about them. They even offered a financial incentive to take the post(s) down.
I removed my posts per their email and received a notification of payment from PayPal. Frankly, I didn’t think they were going to pay, but they did and even included a short thank you with the payment. I feel like I should show them some linky love in return, but wouldn’t that start the whole ball rolling again?
On the horns of a dilemma
13 Nov 2007 2 Comments
in Commerce
Some background info: I’ve done paid posting for about a year, and am waiting for the last few payments to trickle in before I post my official “goodbye”. In the meantime, my partners and I have been working 29 hours a day on a few of my own projects that I believe will provide me (and a few others) with a viable income. I truly believe that what we have coming up has never been done before, and no one even has an inkling of what we’re about to unveil. (How’s that for drama, haha?)
In the meantime, I have found that there are tasks I’ve been doing that I could delegate to outside contract workers via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. It seems that for some jobs, the workers at “turk” are willing to work for mere pennies, and therein lies my dilemma:
I have always been a proponent of paying quality bloggers for quality work, and have sneered at most low-paying blogging offers. For the most part, I’ve felt that offering the bottom price insults the writing skills of anyone that is able to communicate via written word in a coherent and understandable manner. But now that I am considering doing the hiring, am I being a hypocrite if I try to hire the best workers for the lowest possible price? If I offer someone a buck to find some information online, am I using good business sense, or taking advantage of someone that may be facing a dire financial situation?
Oh, and a dollar seems to be high wages for turk. I’ve seen quite a few offers where the payment is one cent. I couldn’t sleep at night if I did that. Now, I just have to decide whether I will use the turk system, and if so, how much should I offer?
What others are saying about LogoCare aka Logo Care
02 Nov 2007 Leave a Comment
in Commerce
I thought I’d do an online search to see what others thought about LogoCare, or if they had experiences similar to mine. While I didn’t find anyone in my particular situation, I did find one site, TheLogoFactory.com, that says the Logo Care site “seems to be a blatant, ahm, ‘homage’ to the Logoworks web site”.
Personally, I don’t know any of these companies, I’m just a person that wants a logo for their site. Now, I suppose I could try to make my own, but the reason I started looking at professional logo companies is that I want a logo that doesn’t look like amateurish. However, my recent unpleasant experiences has made me skittish about dealing with a pro.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind when others make mistakes, because I make plenty of them myself. But I have a deadline to meet and I don’t have the time to start over with another company, working with them in order to get the logo the way it needs to be done.
Sigh. Could someone point the way to the latest version of PrintMaster?
Doesn’t LogoCare Care?
02 Nov 2007 2 Comments
in Commerce
Recently LogoCare made promises they didn’t keep. Now, there may be legit reasons for a company to break their word in a business deal. But how could anyone know the reasoning behind the actions when emails are unanswered?
Personally, I don’t like badmouthing anyone online, but then again, I feel that its important to shed light on situations so people don’t fall into the same mistakes I’ve made.
I wish this post was all about the great work LogoCare does, but I don’t have any first hand knowledge of their competency level, and I doubt I ever will.
I also doubt that this will be my last post about this company.
Is Greed Good?
16 Oct 2007 1 Comment
in Commerce
I’ve been watching a video on YouTube, originally made by John Stossel. In it, he explores capitalism, greed and the desire to succeed. Frankly, I think more people need to be greedy, and push themselves to make their own success. What would it be like if everyone stopped looking for a handout? I wonder why some people don’t think themselves capable of being self sufficient? I think that some people do want to make their own way, but don’t want to look too ‘greedy’.
(I have some things to say about greed and Walmart, but I’m a bit tired to do all the research that’s necessary. I hope to be able to post about it in a few days, but I’ll tease you by saying my opinion is probably going to surprise a lot of people.)
