OneMoreWord

This blog has long been a source of pride and happiness for me…in all honesty, I feel I’m forever in debt to the blogosphere as a whole.  Really — I wouldn’t be co-owner of such a great company, I would have never realized I could make a living writing without publishing a book, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet all the cool people I’ve come across…

So why have I consistently neglected my blog??

Two of my favorite blogs to read are also 2 that tend to provoke inspiration as well as guilt for me…these bloggers hit home with me so much, that there are a lot of times I feel like they must have spycams installed on my computer and they’re writing this stuff just for me!!!  Of course, I know that’s impossible…especially since Darren Rowse at ProBlogger doesn’t have the slightest clue who I am…but he and Adam Singer at the Future Buzz have a way of opening my eyes to my own downfalls.  The reason these guys are so great is because they point out these flaws…but they do it in a way that empowers and inspires rather than just criticizing.

The always positive and inspirational tone of Adam’s blog often works as my conscience when I plan one of my rants - and here lately, I haven’t posted much else.  Then Darren started his series on How to Let Your Blog Go — he had to have written those posts for me!!!

Now, I’m not saying my rants will stop…I rant about bad service, like that at Drum’s Tires of Rock Hill, because I feel like I have an obligation to let other consumers know.  I expose scams like AdsenseBoy and his Blog Comment Poster because I have a problem with lies and hope I can protect and inform those who aren’t aware.  My rants will definitely continue, but I will try harder to balance them with more positive posts…

As for the rest of the list…I’m holding my breath for numbers 9 and 10 - surely they’ll be written for someone besides me!!!  I’ve had a lack of focus here since I started several years ago…I just have too many interests and this is my personal blog…but we’re going to work on bringing back the focus.

This is a big, big apology to those of you who’ve been reading awhile as well as any newer readers - and a very big thank you to the bloggers inspiring me.

I’m not making any promises to more frequent posting right now, but fewer rants, more useful posts rather than excuse posts (this is an excuse post, but it’s also a revelation post), and a better outlook on this chaos I’m transforming into normalcy!

New habits for the week:

• I will keep my messenger statuses up to date rather than staying signed in all day and night on Google and constantly invisible on Yahoo.
• I will post at least one relevant, useful post here each week, even if its really short or just half of what I wanted to write.
• I will spend at least an hour a week working on new themes for wordpress.  I’m still learning to write themes, but this site is getting a custom makeover and its time to get started!

Not much, but its a start…setting little goals and working little things into your daily routine is supposed to be the best way to make change work.  And Adam has said it many different ways in several different posts - no one gets anywhere without taking action!

I need a vacation! 

I posted a few months ago about planning a summer vacation in Spain…While most any destination in Europe would definitely constitute a dream vacation in my book - the beautiful, natural serenity of the south Pacific islands would be even better!

If friendly people and breathtaking surroundings are important parts of your ideal vacation, consider visiting Fiji.  More than 300 islands create a chain of exotic adventure for every taste, whether you want to sip a fruity drink on the white, sandy beaches or explore the gorgeous waterfalls and trek through nature.  Fiji hotels are just as varied as the adventures - choose from luxurious resorts and spas or budget inns perfect for backpackers.

Between Australia and Fiji is a small piece of France called New Caledonia.  The capital city, Noumea, is a haven for water lovers - especially those seeking a luxurious vacation.  Noumea hotels are near a variety of attractions, including the largest lagoon in the world where visitors can scuba dive along the “Great Reef” and examine hundreds of exotic sea creatures.  

Enjoying all the South Pacific has to offer is easy in gorgeous Vanuatu.  Hotels range from simple, but comfortable, economy stays to pampering, oceanfront beach clubs and the selection of things to do in Vanuatu is remarkable.  Unsurpassed nightlife, some of the best shopping and handmade wares in the South Pacific, and every water sport you could possibly desire are just a few of the things awaiting guests to Vanuatu. 

For an exotic adventure vacation that’s affordable, check out tropical Cairns on the coast of Australia.  Diving, snorkeling and sailing are just as popular as sunning by the beach.  If water’s not your thing, hot air balloons, hang gliding, or for the really brave skydiving are also available.  Cairns hotels include affordable beach resorts, budget inns, and inexpensive cabins and villas for a range of tastes. 

I wish I was sending the kids to grandma’s and hopping on a plane!  While they all sound nice, I think I would rather visit Cairns and see if I could overcome my fear of heights with some hang gliding — after trying out snorkeling!  Where would  you go?

*This is a sponsored post from CheaperThanHotels, the best place for affordable accomodations in the South Pacific and around the world!     

Maybe that should say “Bloggers - listen up.  AdSenseBoy beware”?

Is making money on AdSense really possible?  According to  Mindaugas Lipskas, AKA AdSenseBoy, it’s easy.  It’s just a matter of spamming blogs, forums, and YouTube posts with his pricey software!

I’m usually not too bothered by comment spam.  I use askimet and most of the comments that make it through are legitimate comments.  Spammers typically use a program that posts comments automatically to several blogs at once or they may simply hire a comments submitter to visit blogs or forums and paste a short spam comment.

This is considered a “black hat SEO technique” and is highly frowned upon by the search engines — often resulting in domain blacklisting.  It is a sorry attempt, usually by newbie marketers, to gain backlinks (or incoming links) that will increase search rankings.

So this comment was in my spam folder this morning.  No links in the body of the comment, but it has absolutely nothing to do with my post — not to mention, the grammar and sentence structure SUCKS!!!

Curious about the latest online money making scam (and who so rudely spammed my blog), I clicked on over to the AdSenseBoy forum.  There’s this program he sells - $150 - called blog comment poster.  It will supposedly get through spam filters and be welcomed by blog owners as a legitimate comment, gaining you an illegal backlink while hopfully keeping your website off the blacklists  pushing your website to the top of the search engines…Does it sound too good to be true? - it probably is.

In the meantime, bloggers are having to deal with this bs that will more than likely be a waste of money to the poor newbie that bought it. 

Now, the only thing that really bothers me about this comment generator script is that there are lots of people throwing away there cash on this junk — even if it happens to work, it’s still black hat SEO and its only a matter of time before you’re moving domain names because you’ve destroyed the one you had.  That’s my opinion anyway.

Then I came across a thread that really struck a nerve.  I feel that any webmaster that thinks its fun and games to spam another webmaster deserves a reply — if nothing else, I felt obligated to reply to this thread in defense of the blogosphere as a whole!

AdSenseBoy must feel a need to protect himself from people like us (the bloggers his comment poster software targets) — I wonder why he doesn’t want his members to hear my opinion? (Maybe because it’s a scam, but that’s just my opinion)

Whatever the reason, AdSenseBoy quickly censored me.  My post was removed from his forum and my account deleted…I wasn’t notified, just ignored.  I had a feeling that would happen, so I made sure to save a copy of the post that was removed.   You can read what I said to say to AdSenseBoy and his Blog Comment Poster users here.

I’m a bit stubborn, not to mention a bit appalled by being censored, so I set up a new account and left another post.

It was removed soon after and I no longer have access to the website — Yes, I’ve been BANNED! 

I just wrote a post about internet censorship for Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day so this is a rather timely example of how internet censorship can work on a smaller, personal level.  Thankfully, I still have the right to express myself here on my own webspace.

Other bloggers need to be aware of this spam tool.  Because the comment contains no links, there is a chance it will not be caught by your spam filter and could be published, like this example of a poorly written comment from the Blog Comment Poster (scroll to the bottom of the page)  — No why someone would click an ad with that many misspellings and terrible grammar is beyond me

How do you spot an automated blog comment?

Someone using the Blog Comment Poster from AdSenseBoy could possibly manage to bypass your spam filters and publish their link on your blog.  The comments are typically made on an older post, not the most recent.  The only link is in the url field — but the comment will more than likely have absolutely nothing to do with your post. 

Why Should Bloggers Delete These Comments?

In my opinion, we should do all we can as a blogging community to stop the webmasters using this black hat technique from seeing any sort of success.  These website owners are selfish and would rather detract from our work to gain their own success rather than working for it themselves.  The point that bothers me — I took the time to write this and you can’t even take the time to read it and comment yourself…yet you expect me to throw you a link???  I don’t think so!!!

What else can you do to protect the blogosphere from people like AdSenseBoy?

Help me spread the word. 

• Join the AdSenseBoy forum and leave your own opinions. 
• Email AdsenseBoy, Mindaugas Lipskas, at any of these addresses and tell him your thoughts: contact@soft-news.net or manxp@freemail.lt or  mindaugas@lipskas.com 
• Share this information with as many bloggers as you can!!!

 I’ll be posting soon about my thoughts on this program, Blog Comment Poster, from an internet marketer point of view.  Examining the few strongpoints of the script as well as the many, any possible downfalls and first-hand experiences from users.

If you’ve used Blog Comment Poster from AdSenseBoy to post comments automatically on blogs, share your success or failures in the comments (please take the time to write them yourself)

Bloggers…what are your thoughts?  I won’t censor your opinions like AdSenseBoy did mine

AdSenseBoy, legally known as Mindaugas Lipskas, sells a program called Blog Comment Poster.  The $150 download is essentially  a spam tool that targets bloggers.  It posts comments automatically to blogs, claiming to bypass spam filters and generate backlinks that are recognized by the search engines.  The funny thing is, the program creator’s comment was stuck in my spam filter!

I posted a reply on the AdsenseBoy forum, voicing my thoughts on the comment poster program as well as the response to a user who was contacted by a blog owner and accused of spamming.  Within the hour, my post was removed and my account was deleted — did someone feel threatened?!

Here’s the post that was removed…you can read the original thread in the link above:

This is pathetic!!!!!

I found Adsense Boy’s comment promoting this forum in my SPAM comments — never even seen the beauty of being published!!!!

Now, if the guy selling you this program is getting stuck in the filters with his own comments - my thoughts would be that you’re more than likely WASTING YOUR MONEY thinking you’ll get higher rankings by pissing off publishers!!!!

Think about it — how much sense does that really make??? Publishers have the power to make or break you…publishers, bloggers, and writers are the ones ruling the search engines — if this weren’t true, you guys wouldn’t be trying every black hat trick you can to gain links from their sites…am I wrong???

Instead of laughing about the blacklist your website is quickly moving toward using this technique — maybe you should team up with those powerful bloggers and get them on your side?

Did you know, that for probably less cash than you’re feeding to this guy, you could have one of these bloggers actually write a post about your website…not just giving you backlinks - but strong, keyword-rich anchor links that make the search engines smile!!!

And - best of all - you won’t look like an idiot that’s despised by half the internet, your website may actually rank high, and your business may really profit.

Best of luck with this bs guys

As a writer, I know that this is NOT the way to move up in the world of online marketing

Cheers!

Danielle
http://www.onemoreword.com

I don’t see anything offensive in that post, but it was deleted from the AdSenseBoy Forum.  Why?

There’s much, much more to this story.  I’ve actually been banned from the forum and from a couple of the product pages, including the blog comment poster page!  More tomorrow!

No, I’m not ranting about another bad business experience :-)  But I did get a chance to visit the grumpy old man at Drum’s Tires here in Rock Hill myself Monday and he was every bit as rude as my tree man made him sound!  This little hole-in-the-wall tire store was like stepping back in time — into the slavery era!!!  The poor old guy working for grumpy old Mr. Drum said whatever he had to to not make the problem the fault of the tire store…and had nothing to say when I said I understood that he had to watch what he said to me so he wouldn’t lose his job. 

We did manage to get our money back for the tire we were overcharged for to begin with - I’m not fun when I feel I’m wronged…sort of like a nagging mom when you miss curfew or a lawyer that just drills the suspect….the old man said he’d give us our money back because “he didn’t want to deal with us again”…..I guess you’re an ok customer until Drum’s Tires screws up and they have to fix their own mess — then they want rid of you! 

The old man wouldn’t give the money to me — had to walk all the way back outside the store (very slowly I may add) so he could give it to my tree man instead!  So, yes, these uneducated black men working for him very well may be slaves — Mr. Drum seems to be living in the days of yore :-)  We think the fact that my tree man has long hair maybe part of the reason for the trouble!!

King’s Tire of Rock Hill, right down the road from Drum’s and closer to our home, gave us excellent, super-fast service and took care of the tire with no complaints….. so we’ll be using them for our tire needs from now on.

What else am I up to??

My past posts about my trial of Zerosmoke managed to get the attention of zerosmoke and I received a tube of crave control to make the quitting easier.

I started using my magnets again yesterday — not smoking at all during the treatments now (I think I should have done that the first time).  I’m not going to post about Zerosmoke everyday, but I will keep you updated

I will hopefully be smokefree next week!

My tree man just called me from Drum’s Tire in Rock Hill.  Bad customer service seems to be a growing trend these days - what’s the world coming to when lying, cheating, uncaring, selfish, rude, and hateful attitudes are seen in business owners and public officials rather than hardened criminals and troublemakers???

 So, the owner of this Rock Hill tire store got in my tree man’s face and cussed him out because we needed something done about a tire THEY replaced last week that blew today. 

First of all, when they put the new tire on, we were charged $40 more than we were charged a few weeks before for front tires.  The reason for this was because these were supposedly old-school rims that split or something.  They’re supposed to be really dangerous to change, so it cost more.  That makes sense — it would have been nice if they would have mentioned it beforethey asked for an extra 40 bucks, but ok.

Today, the only guy in this tire store that can change this type of rims — well, he’s off until Monday of course.  My tree man explains that he’s in the middle of doing something (this is an old dump truck) and needs to get back to it.  If he drives on the tire, he’s told by the really rude owner of Drum’s Tires, then they’re not responsible for the damage to it anymore.

Ok, so — do we sit and wait here until Monday or what dude?

They have to take the tire off and leave it there.  The truck’s a dooley, so it can still go without it and the job in progress can get finished.  Great!

The place is empty.  The owner’s there and 3 other guys are standing around.  But no one can take this damn tire off so my tree man can go — and the owner has the nerve to cuss him, huh???  I’m glad I’m here at home!!!  I may have just lost it if I were there!

I just got another phone call — it seems, at least in my opinion, that Drum’s Tires here in Rock Hill may not know anything about tires!!! 

Someone finally decided to remove the tire — the dangerous one that the owner “wouldn’t take off if you paid him $100″ (some owner, huh?) — and it wasn’t a split rim like they had said, like we paid an extra $40 for, but a regular ordinary tire (that still shouldn’t have blown a week after it was mounted).

So all is good, right?  Drum’s Tire charged us an extra $40 for no reason — but our ordinary tire could be fixed and my tree man could be on his way, right?

It’s not that easy with this tire store…at least not when you’re dealing with the grumpy old owner it seems.

Magically — a rubber piece that was needed to fix the tire wasn’t there.  Maybe the man that would have to fix the tire when it was a split rim took that piece home until Monday as well?  I don’t know, but the tire will still not be fixed until Monday and the Drum’s Tire owner guy continued to be rude and unfriendly.

Will we be refunded the $40 we were overcharged?  The way this guy sounds, it won’t surprise me if he tries to charge us for the repair!!! 

I’ll update on Monday when the tire will supposedly be ready…but from the way it looks now, we will never use Drum’s Tire of Rock Hill again and would definitely not recommend them unless you want a grumpy old man in your face!

John Kehm’s Facebook PPC Secrets isn’t much different than the throngs of other “secrets” up for sale all over the internet - except this particular “secret” is being marketed with a killer sales letter that he has no right to use!

Everyday, hundreds - possibly thousands - of internet marketers (and wannabe internet marketers) contract the services of ghostwriters to prepare the content they use to profit from the things they promote.  Most of these webmasters, entrepreneurs, and business owners understand the importance of paying for things they request…and the really good ones understand how essential it is to never tick off a writer — especially experienced SEO writers!

But, there’s always a handful of lowlifes that have to make a bad name for everyone. 

John Khem and his Facebook PPC Secrets is just one of many, many copyright thieves.  This site was recently started as an attempt to protect copywriters from copyright theft.  Then there are the mass amounts of bloggers seeing their material republished verbatim by people like Fery Kurniawan Tjahyono   - yet another content thief.

Copyright thiefs - beware!  Writers are joining together to put a stop to this nonsense.  We’re standing up and using those talents that are bringing you profits for free to show the world just how quickly their money can be stolen from thieves like you — If you refuse to pay for the materials you’re selling and the content that promotes it, why would anyone believe your big “secret” actually works?

Copyright theft is a no-no and can be severely punished in a court of law.  If I have my way…these scumbags will either pay what they owe immediately or will suffer greatly shelling out royalties later on!  Stolen content may make you a few quick bucks — but in the end the John Kehns and Alvin Ohs will be brought to light and the profits will come to an abrupt halt.

If you happen to buy John Khem’s Facebook PPC secrets, or have already bought it, I hope it was worth it.  If it was, how about asking this copyright violator why he couldn’t afford to pay for the sales letter he’s using? 

*I would like to update this to say John Khem has now paid for the use of the sales letter promoting his product and Fery no longer publishes stolen content.   Need help stopping an internet thief?  My partners and I can get results

This post is a little different than my normal mish-mash of topics, but its good information for anyone with a baby in their life — believe me, whether you’re a new parent, a grandparent, or helping out a friend, you’ll be glad you read this if you’re dealing with an infant who has baby colic. 

What is Colic?

A reason for colic has still not been medically proven but many believe it is sort of a sensory-overload to infants.  Babies between the ages of 6 and 14 weeks are typically the age affected.  Many years of colic research has found that the condition is not related to the level of care an infant receives nor the health of the baby - there’s really no reason for this period of  a baby’s life that is filled with excessive, non-stop crying.

Colic does not affect all babies and is sometimes mistaken for gas or other complications.  There are no real symptoms of colic other than a lot of crying for no apparent reason.  My oldest son was not a colicky baby, but around 18 months of age he dealt with something very similar.  Both of my younger children had long crying bouts during their early months.  If you’ve ever cared for a colicky baby - you know that it’s no fun!

Calming Colic

Is there one proven way to calm a colicky baby?  Unfortunately, no.  There are several remedies that have been found over the years that work for some, but not all, babies. 

• A tip that I found useful with my youngest was warming a receiving blanket in the dryer and swaddling her tightly.
• Humming or static-type noises can also calm baby colic.  The vacuum cleaner is a tried and true solution and my youngest spent many evenings soothed by the sounds of my tree man’s chainsaw
• A ride in the car - or better yet, the stroller with these ridiculous gas prices - will calm some babies.
• If you suspect a gas or reflux problem, you may want to try switching your baby’s formula or discuss the option with your pediatrician.
• There are several types of colic medicine available as well.  A natural product that has been approved by the FDA is best.

Got your own colic tips to share?  Leave them in the comments!

This post was brought to you by Colic Calm, a leader in safe, natural remedies for colic, gas, and more.  If you need original and unique content for your website, visit me at Priceless Writers!

I noticed my friend Adam’s inspiring post on making the most of your big idea a couple days before I realized he tagged me for the 4×4 meme  ;-) 

My blog is slowly regaining some order - maybe my life will do the same!  I still have a makeover in the plans and a lot of posts I hope to get written!

So, here’s a little more about me, 4×4 style:

4 Jobs I’ve had:

1. I mentioned this a long, long time ago, so there may be some out there that know this already, but I was a children’s pastor in a small church for a couple years — that’s probably my most shocking job ever, considering I’m not a church-goer!
2. Retail jobs galore — my first job at 16 was Food Lion grocery store, I worked there for a year and a half as a cashier and front-end supervisor.  I held every position from head cashier to promotions director to warehouse manager at Media Play, and managed/worked for a dozen or so other chains in my younger years.
3. Childcare/Teaching/Tutoring — 4 1/2 years in the daycare industry as a preschool teacher, a peer math and business tutor in college, and  a volunteer reading guide for a 2nd grade class.
4. And I’m now pursuing my dream job as a writer :-) 

4 Places I’ve Been

Wow — this is even more boring than my jobs!!!  I’ve only been out of the country once!

1. Kingston, Ontario - in 1998, I took a 15 hour road trip alone to Canada.  This is one place I really want to go back to - if you’re from the south and you’ve never been to Canada, I swear it looks like you can just reach up and grab the clouds!  Absolutely beautiful!!!
2. Carova Beach - At the very top of NC’s outer banks is a 12 mile stretch of unmarred beach that is also home to wild Spanish mustangs.  Houses scatter the dunes and pavement is non-existent.  This is the most beautiful place on earth in my opinion!  
3. I’ve never been to Illinois, but I’ve seen downtown Chicago from the shore of Lake Michigan in Indiana
4. Since my collection of east coast US states isn’t all that impressive, I’ll end this section of the 4×4 meme with my dream place to visit - I want to backpack Europe for a couple months.  I want to see Ireland and Scotland, London, Spain and Portugal, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Amsterdam, France…I could keep going

4 bands or Artists I am Listening to

I listen to a lot of different stuff and have a wide range of tastes when it comes to music…right this very second…

1. I’m listening to My Immortal by Evanescence — this song gives me cold chills!!!
2. Before that, I was listening to Chris Daughtry
3. You may find me listening to some classic Journey, a techno remix of an 80’s favorite, a hypnotical electronic mix like the music created by Adam Singer, something to dance to (like Rihanna or Sean Paul), or something like Sublime, Linkin Park, maybe even Miley Cryus if my little princess is around!
4. I have a thing for 80’s and 90’s music - guess it’s cause I’m old ;-)  Old school Madonna, girly stuff like Lisa Lisa and Paula Abdul, I love Janet Jackson, and then stuff like Soul Asylum, Depeche Mode, Jane’s Addiction, and anything with great lyrics or a good beat!

 And finally, 4 of my Favorite Foods

1. Mexican food is my absolute favorite, especially vegetarian Mexican with pico de galla and spicy cheese dip. 
2. Thin crust pizza with pineapple and extra cheese — and the sad thing is, my poor, weird children love it too!
3. Cheese dogs from CookOut Restaurant - if you haven’t experienced the Cookout phenomena, it’s a little burger chain with backyard BBQ style food that’s super cheap and is expanding super fast for a company that still has no web presence.  This is the only place I’ve ever found where you can get a hot dog without the hotdog without being looked at like a complete freak – the cheese dog has everything you find on a normal hot dog, except for the dog itself!
4. Strawberries.  Fresh, ripe strawberries…strawberry pie, strawberry milk, sliced strawberries sprinkled with sugar… I love strawberries!!!  My first job ever (I was only was picking strawberries for my grandfather.  If I sold my gallon, I kept the entire $4!!!  That’s a guaranteed way to teach an 8 year old marketing and sales!  I made $64 that summer and bought my first very tiny keyboard!

So, now I’m supposed to tag 4 people — but I’m re-entering the blogoshpere for the gazillionth time and I don’t know who’s done this and who hasn’t…so if you participate, leave a link in the comments and I’m just gonna give some link love to my partners

Danny at the Business and Technolgy Blog

Samantha at the Home and Garden Blog

Yona at the Travel and Recreation Blog

I know that’s only 3, anyone want to volunteer for 4

Time flies when there’s too much to do! 

This past month hasn’t necessarily been fun, but it has been full of excitement!  I traded my Rumor for the Blackberry Pearl — completely AWESOME phone if you’re in the market for a new one! 

I’ve also started a new business!!!  Along with 3 other writers (really, really good writers I might add), I’ve started a copywriting service that specializes in original and unique content for print and web.  The company is called Priceless Writers and the start-up has been a true learning experience!  Please, please, please — check out the site and give me some feedback!  We’re in the very last stages of finalizing the design and securing our first clients - any outside input will help a lot!  I could also use some advice on merchant accounts if there’s anyone out there with knowledge!

So, that’s where all of my time has been going recently.  Things are finally starting to get normal (I’m afraid to say that, we all know what happens when I do LOL). 

I’ve also started 2 new blogs that are associated with Priceless Writers.  The main one is Improving the Mind, an education and self-improvement blog.  Check out my how to use StumbleUpon post over there and share my stumbles

My other, other blog is about green living – they’re both new so there’s not much to read — take a second to hop over there and show some luv :-)  And check the sidebar for links to my partners blogs and a couple other interesting reads.

I didn’t really mean to turn this into a blatant plug for Priceless Writers!!!  But that’s the big, big project that has been consuming most of my time — and my primary source of excitement right now! 

Get out and enjoy spring this weekend!  Visit my partner Yona for some fun travel ideas if you can’t think of anything to do.  I think I might take a walk at the local state park today