Nails Netflix Review

As many of you know, I'm an advocate for p2p, therefore my movie and music collection is quite impressive. However, as of late I have gained an interest in Netflix and decided to give it a go. Although my experience with them may not be typical, it is what can happen with mail-order movies.

I selected the 3 movies at a time free trial, which seemed to be what I would choose if I were paying. The first few weeks went off without a hitch, but soon I reached a bump in the service when I received an incorrectly labeled DVD. Per Netflix directions I notified them via their online form of the mishap, I was then instructed to return the movie as normal.

A few days later I was expecting my next batch of 3 movies, however I only received 2. Apparently, processing time takes longer whenver there is an error in their service. At this time it is unclear when I will receive my next DVD, although I have returned all that were sent. Because of the error Netflix made, my service is hurt and I'm not receiving what I paid for....if my I were not on free trial. We'll see how long this takes whether or not I will subscribe to their service.

Text-Link-Ads Code Update

Just a friendly reminder to all of those who use Text-Link-Ads to monetize their websites to update their publisher code. You may remember back to last week when they were having problems with their system, several individuals received emails in error. Perhaps this is the fix to the internal updates they were doing.

Nevertheless, login to your account and get your ad code, it's time to update. Hopefully (The email supports this.) these updates will be very few and extremely far between...such a pain, especially whenever you are doing it for sites that don't have any adspots sold.

Monetizing A Blog

Everytime someone brings up monetizing anything on the net, the first thing out of their mouth is Adsense. However, depending on your demographics of your reader base and the niche that your site covers, it may not be the best route. Many keywords on Adsense are extremely low payout, meaning the dreaded penny clicks, however on other networks your sites traffic may be in high demand, meaning higher payouts.

The latest alternative to Adsense that I've found is Adbrite. Although you cannot use their publisher program alongside Adsense directly, they do offer mediums other than contextual advertising. Interstitials are a sort of redirect that visitors will see when visiting your site. These are not popups, nor popunders, rather they are displayed to your visitors once per day.

The Interstitials are used as a sort of "sponsored by" approach. The webpage displayed has a header bar that allows the visitor to easiliy click by and visit your page. I've found it works wonderfully and can be used alongside google adsense, since it is not contextual. Even on some of my low traffic sites it earns me a few extra dollars per day off of a few hundred visitors.

Ubuntu or Not to Ubuntu

That would be the question, if I hadn't already begun the format of my other PC. That's right, we are past the point of no return...again. It would seem I can't learn my lesson when it comes to installing linux distrobutions.

Every geek I talk to seems to recommend a specific distro that I will be happy using. The problem is that I'm a happy life long windows user, even old school v3.1. What makes things even more difficult is that I've never had any serious problems with windows, only ones that people have to point out to me...ie lack of support. By lack of support I mean Microsoft won't update my pirated version of Windows XP Professional(Yes I've already done the workarounds...this is only an example. ).

I'm a tweaker, which means I enjoy messing around with old programs, settings on my computer, and most times causing irepairable damage. Well, my hard drive was getting full...of crap...so today I started reformating and currently I'm installing a fres new distro of Ubuntu. We'll see if this distro lives up to it's name, or burns in hell with the rest of the linux crap I've tried running.

Keep in mind, my idea of crap, is something that's different to what I'm used to. I won't lie, but hell, at least I'm giving it another shot.

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PayPerPost.com Forums are Live

Although I am probably less forgiving than I should be, how come it took them so long to create forums? In addition to taking an extended amount of time to install the simple phpBB script, it's also naked. You'd think an upstanding company such as PPP would invest in skinning their forum...or perhaps this can be another opportunity!

If I were to be setting on the board of directors at PPP, I'd consider offering a large sum of cash to the individual that created a skin for their forums. I say this, knowing that I have trouble with MSPaint, so I'm out of the running, but it would be interesting to see.

Instead of classifying the contest as an opportunity, it could be exactly that...a contest. If they placed enough money on the line they would earn all kinds of interesting backlinks from blogs and other webdeveloper sites, seems to be a win/win. However, this is just my opinion, that and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee....at my house.

Text-Link-Ads Problems

This afternoon, roughly 30 minutes ago I received an email stating that my Text-Link-Ads.com stating that they were having problem accessing the advertising code on my blogs. This message also confirmed that it had not communicated properly for the past 48 hours, therefore was being removed from their inventory.

Typically, this would not matter, but I just started selling some of my inventory. My concern was that my sponsors would back out and it would be another wait before I sold space on Text-Link-Ads.

For those of you who are not aware of their program, Text-Link-Ads.com sells text links on your site. Your site is added to a searchable inventory and managed accordingly. Text-Link-Ads splits the sale with you 50/50, so if a link spot was sold for $14 per month, you would actually only earn $7.

In addition to providing a great text link market, they also have a phenomenal affiliate program. For every publisher or customer that's referred, TLA pays out a flat $25. So far I've been quite successful with their program and I'd recommend others to check it out.

RIAA Needs more Evidence

It's been talked about underneath the breath of many p2p users, so much in fact that most have convinced themselves this is an easy out. However, no one to date has had the money to fight a case against the RIAA's blanket lawsuits.

For the latest defendant against the RIAA, Paul Wilkes, the concept is simple because the RIAA does not have evidence to launch a case. Paul is arguing that an IP address is not enough to link an individual to copyright infringement. Past cases have succeeded based on bullying an individual into paying a concession, rather than going to court. Paul is standing firm saying there is no case...at all.

He has filed for summary judgement in the case, which means that he believes that there is not enough evidence being presented by the RIAA for the case to even go to court formally. The court is now having to consider whether it should actually require the RIAA to have evidence beyond an IP address.

According to Bi-Tech.net this could set a prescedent in the court systems and could have major negative ramifications for the recording industry. Hopefully, we'll see a decrease in the RIAA's relentless pursuit of pushing people around. Happy sharing!

Moola Cashout Bonus

Today I received my first Moola cashout bonus for my referral network. In case you haven't heard of moola, check out my previous posts.

It's a very intersting flash game site that you can earn real money. Well, apparently someone in my referral network cashed out and I received a fat $.20 into my account. Freakin Sweet!

If you'd like an invitation to Moola, simply leave a comment here with your email address. A word of warning, you must be a resident of the US to play, sorry.

Fixing Line Through Post Title

This theme has been absolutely phenomenal and covers everything I'm looking for in terms of a good wordpress theme. However, there was one problem with it's layout, on multiple posts during the day it would cause the post titles to be crossed out by the dividing lines. I've came up with a simple fix.

First, make sure your theme files are writable, so that you can edit them through the dashboard. Next, find a section of code in the Main Index Template that looks like this:

After this line simply add a paragraph tag:

Now there only be slight spacing between daily posts and there will be enough so that multiple post titles are not crossed through with the dotted line. I hope this helps and is satisfactory to the other theme users, if you have any questions please post here.

September 10, 2006 · Filed Under Web Development

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Announcing Recommended Downloads

I spend more time on the internet than I probably should and as such have discovered a plethora of free programs. These downloads are used on almost a daily and I've compiled a list of the most important, to me.

The free download compilation consists of  a few referral links(that I still recommend), p2p related downloads, and some others that I use regardless of topic. Compiling this list gave me some time to play with CS2 and get to know my downloads a little bit more intimately, researching logos etc....

I hope this list servers you as well as it has served me, here is a link to my recommended downloads page. In addition to hopefully providing a service to my visitors, it was a good way for me to fill up my top navigation bar with something other than 'about'.

September 10, 2006 · Filed Under P2P, Surf Crap

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