I am using Amazon contextual links on my Wii blog, unfortunately I have yet to gather enough data to make any kind of decision on it's success. After only running the ads for 2 days, it's virtually impossible to gauge any sort of conversion rate, especially with the delayed reports today. Regardless of Amazon's other short comings, the contextual affiliate link looks promising.

The setup was easy and was composed of only a few options.

• Number of links displayed per page (default is 10 links)
• Link Color (any color or page default)
• Link Style (underline, over/under, or double underline)
• Display style (currently there are only 2 options)

After making the previous selections I'm presented with a code to copy into my site. It is strongly recommended to paste the code after the content on your page, therefore it is the last thing to load and does not interfere with the functioning of your page generation.

After only a few minutes the majority of my pages had been crawled by the Amazon bot and the links were being displayed. I was very impressed with the delay in hover time to display time of the Amazon product. I'm looking forward to getting more data and see if it truly helps with my conversion percentage. After running the contextual Amazon links for 2 days I was rewarded with 13,698 impressions, 27 clicks, with a CTR of 20%. Because of Amazon's ship/order reporting I do not yet know how my conversions were. I'll report as soon as I know.

I can't say squirt without feeling really dirty, at any rate, it looks like Universal and Sony are pissing off Zune customers. The ability to transfer songs from one Zune MP3 player to another was the primary reason to own a Zune, compared to an iPod, but the amount of compatable songs is quickly dimenishing.

According to a post over at ZuneUser, you stand a 50/50 chance that the songs you download will not be transferrable. Originally all songs would be able to capitalize on this new technology, but with the restriction that they last X amount of times played or a specified number of days. Since Universal and Sony have their way, not every son is fair game and Zune users want to be warned.

It was announced yesterday that IsoHunt's servers were raided, seized, and a victory cry was heard over the airwaves. The MPAA was quick to announce the success of their operation, all to similar to The Pirate Bay in Sweden. However, unlike TPB, IsoHunt's servers were located in the US where the MPAA and FBI have legal jurisdiction.

In a statement on their website, Isohunt administrators posted this "Lawyers from our primary ISP decided to pull our plug without any advance notice, as of 14:45 PST. No doubt related to our lawsuit brought by the MPAA, but we don't have more information at this time until people responsible comes to work tomorrow. We will be back in operation once we sort out this mess with our current ISP, or we get new hardware ready at our new ISP."

I was unaware that the MPAA was a standalone policing agent, apparently I was wrong. Lobby enough and you too can control the nations police force. pfft

The title says it all and in itself should not condemn the web host in any way, shape or form. The issue stems from the type of service that was provided from the point of disabling the MySQL database to the point of my website being returned to it's once glorious self. (Ok fine, just when it was back up then. )

The first thorn in my side was that I was not notified of my database being disabled. I was checking my email, comments, etc, before crashing last night when I noticed that Buy-Wii.net was down. I was not greeted by the typical WP Database error screen either, rather I was asked to install wordpress from the beginning. I immediately logged on via ftp and through PHPMyAdmin to find the culprit, hoping that it would be something simple.

Scouring through the files found in the sub-domain folder everything seemed to be in place. WP-Config.php appeared to be in the right place along with all the correct info. So what gives, usually when a site is hacked there is a deletion of the config.php file...or worse the entire domain deleted. (eeek, at least this has been my experience.) With everything else appearing to be in order I needed to check my MySQL Database.

Through PHPMyAdmin it appeared that my WP database had been completely deleted of it's tables. The actual database was there, but void of any tables or data. I admit, I over reacted and posted to V7N that I needed help. (before finding this problem.) ServerPlace.net provides Live Support which I took advantage of and that's where the level of service dropped even further.

If a company is going to provide live support, you should be greeted by a live person, or at least appear to be. Instead the robot on the other side kept asking the same questions, before the actual 'person' arrived. I'm afraid my situation didn't improve after this either, mainly because of an obvious language barrier. WHY oh WHY outsource a critical aspect to a hosting providers operation?

To make my long and drawn out conversation with tech support short, I was instructed to optimize my database. Hmm, seems fair enough if it will fix the issue, but one small problem with this fix.

Sandra: yes when i enabled it suddenly load on the serve was gone high

Sandra: it was touched to 25 +

Chris: ok, so what is the fix?

Chris: again, there has been no change on my end

Sandra: you have to optimise your database

Sandra: so that it will not increse load on the serve

Sandra: server

Chris: how do I do that?

Chris: are you there?

Sandra: yes please give me moment

Chris: no problem

Sandra: for optimizing database please refer this url

Sandra: http://www.webkeydesign.com/26/optimize-your-mysql-databases/

Chris: how can I do that if you've disabled it?

Sandra: ok i will enable it.

My head still hurts after that conversation and yet this simple excerpt from the communication does it no justice. What would have more impact was if the messages were time stamped, since I was talking with Sandra at ServerPlace.net for nearly 1 hour, just to get to this point.

Moral of the story, I will most likely not be leaving ServerPlace.net. I've used a handful of other popular shared hosting providers and despite this stroke-inducing incident, they still remain the best of the worst. Eventually I need to break down, throw up the extra cash, and get a VP or Dedicated Server. Damn you internets.

I finally received my Wii, almost 3 months after launch. The next-gen console from Nintendo was obviously going to be a success, but I didn't think so much in my area of the country. The stores around here would get them 50-60 at a time and they would be gone within an hour of opening. bummer.

Luckily I have a friend in New York City who was nice enough to hook me up and UPS me one. Although not a system I will likely play by myself, it sure is a blast with friends. *Note majority of people playing must be intoxicated.

I'm sure for most this morning it's old news, but it looks like Google is shaking things up again. The Q1 PR update may be incomplete, effect old domains, new domains, whatever...the rhyme and reason is unclear at this point.

Also, it looks like propagation is slow or Google is just testing the waters. What a great way to start of the New Year, than with the PR update announcement. Personally, only one of my sites have been affected, but it's still early on.

PR Update posts at DP:

PR Update Started 

I See PR Changes 

And I'm sure many more will start surfacing as anxious webmasters roll out of bed. Personally, I could care less, but the ruckus is still fun to watch.