Signing Up

First of all, signing up to Scottrade.com can be a daunting experience.  Unlike most websites, this investment website requires sensitive information like Social Security numbers, which some people may not feel comfortable sending over the tubes.  Also, there are a number of forms that must be electronically signed and filled out, which were written by main street's lawyers, meaning myself and others may not completely understand what we are agreeing to.

Luckily there is an answer to the above woes, Scottrade offers the assistance of local offices.  As a matter of fact there is a manned office less than 10 mins from my home.  The employees of Scottrade were more than willing to help me get signed up, answer my noob questions, and allow me to make a check deposit.  So, other than be daunting to sign up via the web, the initial 'sign up' process was a breeze, once the professionals were called in.

Deposit

It's odd, but there is only one electronic option for placing funds into a general Scottrade account.  For example, my initial deposit could only be completed by Money Direct or by physically mailing or dropping off a personal check or money order.  I would have much rather preferred linking my PayPal account for transaction and purchase fees, oh well.

I opted to drop off a personal check, since Scottrade's offices were so close.  The deposit showed up immediately, however the funds were not available for purchase until the next business day.  There were also restrictions on my funds for 2 additional days, stating that I could not purchase shares under $4 ea.  Therefore my penny stock trading had to wait until the full clear process, 3 days after my initial deposit.

Again, the employees of Scottrade were very helpful and explained the restriction process to me.  This also opened up the conversation to what will happen during my first trade.  Right inside the office the personnel walked me through a mock transaction, complete with commission fees and different purchase options.

First Stock Trade

Smooth.  It's true, my first purchase within Scottrade was a smooth transaction that qued, completed, and showed in my account within 10 minutes of me left clicking confirm.  As a matter of fact the entire Trade tab is simplified and easy to understand your options.  Anything that might not be clear is explained in the right hand column or has a question mark link, to take you to an explanation.

A typical trade is done by selecting the stock symbol you wish to trade, amount of shares, type of order, and then the length of time you want the offer to be made.  I only purchase on limits, so a time frame is always required, which I typically set to expire at the end of the day.  After completing the fields you will be given with a review of your order and then a final confirmation.  It's easy peezy, even for someone who has never traded stock before.  Furthermore, the employees at Scottrade are available to assist you over the phone, should you be nervous or have some questions.

Recent Scottrade Site Performance

I have not been satisfied with the Scottrade.com site performance.  I am consistently timing out when requesting a quote and the reports they provide usually never load.  I've bested the Scottrade.com site from 3 different computers on 3 different connections and the problem continues to persist.  In addition, I've tried using 3 different browsers, including FireFox, Chrome, and the latest release of Internet Explorer.  Unfortunately Internet Explorer appears to be the most stable when using Scottrade, go figure.

This morning I was in the process of purchasing some stock at market open, only to find that Scottrade had turned off online trading.  After calling my local office I was informed this is the first time this has ever happened that he can remember.  Lucky me, assuming he was telling the truth, which would also translate this article into an unfair review.  You be the judge and I'll be back in another 30 days to fill you in on all the trades and money I've lost.

To search the keyword, simply press Ctrl+F, which will bring a drop down in the top right of the browser to enter a search term. After entering the search term the keyword will be highlighted on the page. Within the drop down search menu will be a 1 of XX, displaying how many times the keyword was used on the page.

This neat little Chrome trick will help in increasing or decreasing the density of keywords being used on an article. Although it's also a great tool to use when searching for specific information on a HUGE page full of irrelevant text.

I'm working on a few pages that would greatly benefit from having their 'Share This' gadget, along with member signups, and newsletter confirmations.  However, the current state of Google Sites prohibits the use of any code that requires javascript, other than their Adsense which can be added into the sidebar.

The Google Friend Connect code can be added via the html function of Google Sites, but the user is greeted with a warning that the potentially dangerous code will be removed upon viewing.  A la, no more working Google Friend Connect on Google Sites.

I'm not the only one upset that Friend Connect won't work with Sites.  A thread on the official Sites Forum has over 43 posts from people looking to add Friend Connect to their personal Google Site pages.  The reason it hasn't been integrated yet, my best guess is that they were too busy copying Twitter to come up with Buzz!.

It's been a looonnggg time since I last sent out an email to you
but a lot has been going on and unfortunately as a result I have
some bad news to share with you today.

With much thought and struggle, I have decided to close down
Affiliate Espionage.

It has been a fun ride and the feedback and response to AE has
been fantastic over the past 18 months but things have reached a
point where I had to decide which direction to take my business
and focus my efforts and I did not feel I would be able to
provide the support, service and time required to do justice to
the Affiliate Espionage Software while tackling the major
project I will be working on this year.

Effective March 1st 2010, Affiliate Espionage will be taken off
the market.

All existing customers will still have full access to the
Member's only Site indefinitely to access all software, videos,
and manuals.

There may be occasional software updates but there is no
timetable or schedule (or promise of) these updates.

This has not been an easy decision especially since this project
has been part of my life for well over 2 years now.  I
appreciate your support and understanding.

You can still contact our support desk until March 5, 2010 to
address any questions or concerns you may have.

So, it looks like it's back to studying trends  the old fashion way and spend lots o pennies on testing Adword Campaigns.  But that's ok, because everything the Affiliate Espionage Plugin did can be done on your own manually, just takes a little bit longer.

If you are looking for alternative revenue streams, please check out my Chitika Review.

Since Google has updated Chrome to allow popups for domains, it's found a permanent fixture on my work PC.  No longer must I fight with FireFox's memory leaks and slow to open windows.  As of late I've also found myself feasting on Chrome's ability to use Extensions, which the lack of was a shortfall at launch in 2008.  But, early on in the development stage, quality extensions are few and far between.

Currently I'm only using 3 different Chrome Extensions, which include FasterChrome, Google Mail Checker, and Webpage Screenshot.  It's better than nothing, but they still struggle to meet the sophistication and tweekability found in FireFox addons.  According to developers, it's Google's fault for the way they allow access to their code.  To be honest, it's all lost over my head, I just know what I can use and what I hate.

Taking a quick look through the top Chrome Extensions proves that there isn't enough competition in the marketplace.  Extensions like ibrii are attempting to farm user information in exchange for their Extension services and an Extension called Nothing is ranked #7 as most installed.  Nothing does just as advertised by the way, man I love dry humor on the internet.

After browsing off of the 1st page of Top Chrome Extensions the pickings start getting real thin.  I've tested a few, but none seem to offer exactly as advertised, or are buggy, or are just not as useful as you'd hope, or all the above.  But I'm not discouraged yet, I've got the extensions I need for adequate use as a primary browser both at work and at home.

It wouldn't be fare to expect as much out of Chrome as what FireFox has to offer, which as been around much longer.  However, I see a changing of the guard in the next 2 years, where FireFox may be ousted as the 2nd most used web browser.  I for one welcome competition in the market place, while keeping my lips wet thinking of a full blown Google OS.

BritePic looks like a good place to start and will require some more testing before I'm convinced it's not actually causing a higher bounce rate.  The problem is that my visitors are viewing my website through Google's frames, which hides the majority of my site.  I've tried the script that breaks Google's Image Search frame, but had negative results after a few months, meaning lower image search numbers.  I'd rather keep my non converting traffic and find another way to monetize.

Back to BritePic's issues.  I'm not convinced that BritePic script images are searchable and hold as much weight as a normal image post would.  Therefore I wouldn't be bringing in the traffic to monetize against anyway.  Lastly, my visitors are more likely to view the enlarged image than just hover over the medium sized image on my blog.  Angered visitors, visitors lost, still no monetary gain from image search traffic.

In conclusion, I feel the only way to properly monetize image search traffic is with better affiliate banner and text ad placement.  This comes with it's own set of problems, like how much blending is too much, and is Google going to be upset about where you place the block of ads.  They tend to frown upon a large block above an image and directly below your post title.  I believe they want more content next to the ad, rather than a simple block next to a block which can potentially confuse a visitor into a click.

So far, it looks like Adsense still converts the best with Image Search traffic, but requires placement above the image, but around actual content.  I failed miserably when trying to place Chitika Ads at the top of a blog post, which has no qualms about where it's placed in relation to post title and image.  Chitika Premium ads still look like they convert the best at the bottom of a post, for whatever reason.

More testing is required, but I wanted to get this quick post out, which harbors some of my thoughts and issues.  I'm sure there is a quality solution to monetizing Google Image Search traffic and it may be the next big thing.

After disabling, uninstalling, and generally tweaking I decided that the gMail Checker extension for Chrome was not the culprit.  The problem can best be described as some sort of loop issue when gMail loads, causing the load screen to stick.  This problem can be solved by clearing Chrome's cache.

To clear Chrome's cache:

1. Left click the Tools drop down menu. (The Tools drop down menu is indicated by a wrench icon in the top right corner of your browser.)
2. Select Options.
3. Select the Personal tab.
4. Under Browsing Data, select Clear browsing data...
5. Select the Cache check box.
6. Select Everything, from the drop down menu.
7. Finally click the Clear Browsing Data button.

After following these steps I've been able to successfully open gMail in my Chrome browser.  I've also been able to use the gMail Checker extension, without causing any issues.  Hope this helps your problem as well.

How to allow popups in Google chrome.

Allow pop-ups

Sometimes you don't want pop-ups to ever be blocked for a certain site. If that's the case, follow these steps to allow pop-ups:

1. Visit the site where you want pop-ups to always appear.
2. Click the Pop-ups Blocked alert at the bottom right-hand corner of the browser tab.
3. Select Always show pop-ups from (site).

If you want to change this setting for the site at a later point, follow these steps:

1. Visit the site again.
2. Click the Manage pop-ups alert at the bottom right-hand corner of the browser tab.
3. Deselect Always show pop-ups from (site).

Now Chrome becomes  a viable alternative in my work place, where popups are required to view pdf's.  Thanks to the development team Chrome is becoming better and better every day, even now allowing for plugins and addons.  I forsee a day when Chrome gives FireFox a run for it's money, I just hope it doesn't cause hard feelings.

Currently on my automotive website I'm taking a much more proactive approach at attracting visitors for very specific products.  AutoPartsWarehouse.com seems to have plenty of products that can turn into a virtually endless amount of content for me to write about, but how best to link to what I'm trying to sell?  With Pepperjam my options are limited to banners, coupons, and some text links, however Commission Junction offers some fantastic Advanced Link options.

Specifically within AutoPartsWarehouse.com link catalog on CJ you are able to create interactive product searches.  More importantly there are figures published on CJ that prove these types of linking strategies work.  So why hasn't PJN offered these advanced links yet?  Is it a problem with Pepperjam or with the individuals in charge of AutoPartsWarehouse.com's affiliate program?

In previous years I had niches that were under high demand, year round, but this year I'm not so fortunate.  My websites have remained constant with their visitors and actual statistics, unfortunately the buying has dropped off dramatically.  So it got me thinking about the next holiday coming up and how I can better prepare for what consumers will be after.  I just hope I'm not too late to the game because I've been setting on my laurels.