Regardless, I found a reasons to cut off the umbilical cord from my work, emails and blogs and attend B’estfest 2008. It’s a nicely organized festival, happening every year in Bucharest. It was held last Friday and several artists were scheduled: Alanis Morissette, Apollo 440, UNKLE, Cypress Hill and my personal favorite, Mark Norman.

All in all, a good evening with great music.

I am currently confronted with having to move to my own place, I got the opportunity to encounter one of the fuggliest types of people ever. I decided to round them up into a short, comprehensive list for the records.

1. real-estate agents - Well, here these are probably the greediest people one could find. They have no respect for people’s time, charge you a huge commission just for making a few calls and are natural liars. I wish I had a realestator every day so I can play fetch, randomly punch him in the face when I don’t get a frontpage or make him lick clean my LCD monitor. No, no, better yet - my boots.

2. people in the subway/bus - You get in the bus or subway and see one man or woman sitting right in front of the door, better planted there than the doors themselves. You might also find people whose hormones come to the surface right there: they’re constantly pushing and ass grabbing, just maybe they might get a feel of what they’re missing. This reminds me of an odd situation in the trolley when I had to get down just to escape a guy that was constantly trying to start a conversation. Luckily, he only touched my shoulder.

3. spammers - everyday I must get a spam from some unknown user that added me and wants me to add him/her back. I don’t know you, you’re not active and furthermore you didn’t even check out my activity. Digg is probably the most common place for that. I read somewhere that there are some softwares that add friends in bulk - I think that’s the common case for me too. Just try to known someone before befriending him/her - it will pay off in the long run.

4. beggars - and I don’t mean people with physical or mental handicaps, I mean drunks or junkies that are simply too comfortable to get a job. I’m starting to become immune to begging, it’s like when you see one dog on top of the other and you look away cause it’s either too funny or too uncomfortable to watch. I can bet people were more sympathetic 20 years ago than they are now.

5. stupid parents - Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to have a baby. I’ve seen clueless parents feeding their children those nasty chemical potato chips, fizzy drinks, smoking in front of them or letting them have a sip of their drink. It’s no wonder we see so many slow people using the internet. At least they learned to use it for basical purposes.

Disclaimer: This is a hectic time, but trying to keep myself motivated and let the bad energy out. So out with the old, in with the new. Happy thoughts! *sigh*

I just came from seing a cheezy comedy, What happens in Vegas, which turned out surprinsingly well. In this movie, this chick gets dumped by her boyfriend and decides to go to Vegas, where, whilst drunk, marries a stranger. To get straight to the point, she realizes she’s always trying to please others and forgets how to be herself. Basically, it’s a movie about following your instincts, doing what you love and going after those you love.

photo credits: rosephotosetc

It’s not common here to work on your own. My friends were baffled when they found out and my parents just couldn’t get it. But for a few got the message pretty clearly: stop doing something you don’t like, focus on yourself and less on others and do what you love. You won’t get to socialize with the boss, do some ass-kissing for a promotion or flirt with the pretty girls from Human Resources, but it will sure make you feel better.

I can start work at 12 in the afternoon, writing articles for thousands of people, digging, twittering or IM-ing with a bunch a friends - all in my underware with a cup of tea aside. Many can’t understand, probably with half of their brain washed up by corporate mentalities, but doing what you love without answering to anyone is one of the best things you can come across. It just takes a little bit of vision and initiative, those work and hard effort perhaps too familiar.

It sounds like propaganda, but I’m not selling anything. I just wanted to share some thoughts that recently crossed my mind. It’s amazing what a good song in the morning, the smell of flowers can do combined with the support from people I just know virtually. You can say you’re lucky when you find out what you love doing and get to meet some gifted people.

It’s a big step considering I have been working for 2-3 years for different companies. I can now choose where I work from, when I do it and what I want to do. My plans are pretty clear at this moment: write more on my blogs, take on more projects, write more linkbaits, contribute more to social media (just passed the 9,000 pages milestone on StumbleUpon) and take some more for myself. Plan on meeting new people, traveling more and just seeing how far I can go.

I’ll still be online most of the day and night active on digg, stumbleupon, reddit and the others, writing, chatting and blogging. So hope to meet new people and strenghten the relationship with my existing friends. Looking forward to a happy, productive summer! Thanks to all the friends that support me now and in the past!

Seems that the social media environment will be a cleaner one.

You can read the full guest post at DailyBlogTips. I would love your feedback.

I am trying to get a constant rate of updating this blog, but I am caught up with some other projects I am really excited about. But have some ideas in mind, I’ll keep you posted!

It seems there are a lot of clients with practically no SEO experience that believe that such a service is generally worth over $2000. Otherwise, I cannot explain the crazy offer that follows :

-$3000 one-time fee for submitting a website to 100 directories

Have directories gotten so expensive or is the submission process a hectic and time-consuming task? Bulk directory submission are usually no more than $50 for manual submission to over 500 directories. There are services that even offer submission to 1000 directories for a mere $40. So if we draw the line and do the math, the so called “SEO expert” offering this service will rip off the company with around $2900. Not bad for 30 minutes worth of work. Profit : $2950

-$100 for an article and a submission to an article portal

This might seem more reasonable but it’s infact another overpriced service you could easily get for $30. Writter charge around $10-$15 for a crummy article and the submission of the piece is done for $15 or free, if you have the time to do it manually. Profit: $70

-$50 for modifying and submiting the article to more portals

We again turn to the Indian internet professionals (cough) that offer these services for some bargain price. You can get your article rewritten for as low as $50, while the price for the submission remains the same - $15 for distributing your article to around 300 directories. Well, there’s some common sense here, nothing costs less. Profit $30

-$300 one-time fee for keyword ranking consulting

Some guys are giving you a list of keywords sorted by Overture’s PPC searches per month. Someone should tell them Overture is not updating their database anymore. They also show you what keywords do not convert. Again, their clients probably weren’t familiar with all the features Google Analytics has to offer. Furthermore, people have come up with a way to create softwares that show what keywords you or your competitors rank for. I’m starting to become cynical so I will stop here. Additionaly, while researching on the topic, I’ve found SEO consulting over the phone. I can imagine a call center with bored teens reading some script. Profit: $300(practically worthless service)

This is probably how many self-proclaimed SEO experts make their salary by delivering overpriced services to companies not familiar with search engine algorithms. While finishing the post, I came across some really cheap SEO services, as opposed to the ones I just mentioned. They charge as low as $50 for bringing a keyword on the top spot on Google. Luckily, there’s a money-back guarantee policy.

All in all, SEO has gotten out of hand, since everyone seems to know it. With such an offer, I would expect prices to go down but they fluctuate heavily. I am not going to give out names of the companies whose services I mentioned above. I just wanted to share it and have some laughs and opinions. SEO is still a market worthwhile - it can your business the boost it needs, considering you found the right expert. You can’t become an expert overnight or pay thousands without first looking into the outcome and ROI.

photo credits: jmsmytaste

Regrettably, your account privileges have been suspended due to a breach of our TOS. I respectfully draw your attention to our Terms, particularly with respect to the clauses which forbid the use of personal accounts for the promotion of a business, product or service, and also with regard to the sending of ’spam’ messages to other members.

Our terms can be found here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/terms.html

Under the circumstances, the restriction is unlikely to be lifted.

Was it a surprise? For many yes, but if you take a look at their TOS, you’ll see these actions are strictly frowned upon. StumbleUpon is not for selling things, not for promoting an affiliate program, not for blatant product reviews, with a buy link.
Consequently, some of the people that befriended these “commercial accounts” can have some kind of flag raised.

So here are a few steps for cleaning your closet on StumbleUpon one of my friends, kukon,  let me in on:

• Take a look at the people you are mutual friends with. Click on the username without any avatar. Usually, when an account is under review, the display image or avatar is not displayed in the SU network. Remove that user from your friend list and the page will change to an empty one, if it’s the case, saying the account is reviewed.
• See what your friends are submitting or stumbling upon. Constantly submitting or thumbing up articles from certain domains can damage your account.
• Be an active user for the community. Try to submit things that are interesting to others, that have the potential to turn popular. Contribute and make yourself known to other stumblers!

Recently, StumbleUpon has also been banning websites that offered stumble exchanges. Here is an excerpt confirming it:
Are incentive programs allowed? Someone asked me to rate their web-site?

StumbleUpon does not allow personal accounts to be used for the purposes of incentivization or promoting sites. This would be considered a breach of our Terms.

The practice of sending PM’s encouraging or inviting other stumblers to rate/review sites in exchange for reciprocal reviews/ratings, monetary, or any other form of reward is strictly forbidden.

The practice of actively soliciting a rating or review for a site is also forbidden. Should you receive a PM, or encounter forum postings that breach this rule, you are encouraged to report this via feedback.
Accounts participating in such practices will be deleted and banned, and the related sites deleted and banned from the system.

FileDropper -After hearing about it on digg, I decided I should give this one a try. Apart from the free account, there are 3 cheap paid options offered. Upload speed was rocketing, download went effortlessly and fast. I also tried the paid account, since it has a good price for what it offers.

Signing up as a member of File Dropper gives you some great benefits. You’ll be able to keep track of your files in a handy file manager, add password protection for downloading, mark files as private (only you can download them), and delete unwanted Files. Filedropper.com is offering this service to better help out file hosting users, and the prices are nominal to cover the cost of bandwidth and storage space.

Unlike other sites there are no count down times to download files, and no excessive push to make you sign up for paid accounts like other sites.

Megaupload - is probably one of the annoying services of this kind. A premium account is great for you but when you upload something and send it to your friends, they have to wait for a slot to clear, which almost never does. You get 250 gigs of file storage with a $9.99 monthly fee. It’s probably one of the slowest services I have tried, particularly in the download area. If you don’t have a US, UK, or Canada based IP, you’re in for a long wait. No wonder no one really uses it.



Rapidshare - is one of the most popular options for downloading or uploading files, doing pretty good at the time. The monthly account is around 10 euro and provides some good options for premium users. But when it comes to the free user, the road is a bit rocky. After downloading a file, small or large, you are hit with a time restriction. You’re not allowed to download another file, no matter the size. Again, a service good for uploaders but not indicated for those downloading several files.

Pricing
3 Euro - 2 Days
9.90 Euro - 1 Month
24 Euro - 3 Months
44 Euro - 6 Months
79 Euro - 1 Year

I started my blog with the impression that AdSense was the only viable option for monetizing it. The n00b that I was, I subscribed to John Chow’s site so that I could learn more. However, this awful post lead me to doubt. It simply attempts to promote a eBook for generating traffic. When you have so many free options available — valuable content you can easily dig up, why pay for it?

If you take a look at the articles, no matter how bad the article or how obviously shitty the paid review is, his readers consistently find a way to compliment him. Some border on entering the comment olympics; watching the feed and leaping to his latest post to submit their obviously transparent praise.

Why should I be forced to read an article, paid for by some mediocre company and help others fatten their checking accounts, while not benefiting whatsoever? Take a moment, try to remove all the ads from the blog, and take a look at the articles. You can’t get anything useful out of them unless you are desperately trying to sell something. Furthermore, posts about the parties he’s been to and the people he’s met, get you no further in your ambitions of making money online. Where are the make money tips everyone is talking about? The meat?

The $500 review is what really cracks me up. Unless you’re selling an ad platform or trying to promote some blogging tools (that still doesn’t account for the expenses), a review on his blog is not only useless, but usually a gramatic nightmare.

photo credit: rookie blogger

All in all, it’s a question of valuable content. When you get sick of restaurant or product reviews, over 50% of the page being sprinkled with ads or worthless reports of monthly earnings, you’ll turn to useful articles. For me, Darren Rowse’s blog, Problogger, has been significantly more influential than any other money making blogs I’ve encountered.

When you try to leave the money making scheme behind, and focus on quality, the rewards will initiate themselves.

1. Search Engine Submissions - Well, they’re called search engines so what they do is search. Why should you bother submitting your sites when they will index it anyway. In other words, if you built it, they will come! Prices for this top offer range from $5 to even $50, depending on the number of search engines your site gets submitted to (lol). Here’s a random quote from one of these services: When you submit to these 66 search engines, search results will show up in hundreds of other engines. For instance, Google powers the Yahoo search engine. Search listings in Google will show up in Yahoo as well. Why would you pay $299 to Yahoo when you can get listed in their directory by submitting to Google??

2. Directory Submission Service - This might have its purpose, but done carefully and steadily. Firstly, don’t get tricked into PR of the directories - this is only for homepages. Your link will be submitted in an inside page, without any PR, among tens or hundreds of other links. Forget getting PR juice. Secondly, most of directory submissions are done bulk, in a few days. You might trigger some alarm system if you wake up over night with some spammy links. Thirdly, you can avoid this: some submissions require confirmation via email. You can simply confirm these emails once every 2-3 days to ensure your links will be properly distributed. Cheap service, $10-50 for anywhere between 100-500 submission, listings not guaranteed of course. You get the report and over 100 emails asking you to confirm the link.
3. 100 diggs for $x or 100 friends for $x - This is one of my favorite BS service. Ideally, with 100 diggs you get on the frontpage. But these diggs will most likely come from the same IP and will get your submission flagged, burried or even your website banned. 100 friends? Forget it! There are some automated services that add digg users in bulk. But who is gonna add you back? Spam is just one step away! I’ve seen people asking $50 for 100 diggs.

4. Social bookmarking services - Just imagine your story/website submitted to high traffic websites. Ideally, you can get some traffic and inbound links. The real picture is that your bookmark will get submitted by a user with a weak profile, a bad title and in a bad category. Your link will not receive any votes and will probably get lost in the thousands of links submitted daily.

5. SEO service of the Gods - aka frontpage in Google or your money back. Don’t you just love these folks? These guys can guarantee putting your website on Google’s frontpage or in the top 10 for a competitive keyword or your money back. Surprisingly enough (no, not really, I was expecting this) the companies I’ve come across that offer these services are from India. Here’s what some guy got off this kind of service: work to get your ranked, one on one on messenger, guy that works his butt off for you, reports emailed to you on suggestions for onsite changes and of course, no link building budget needed. You only pay the SEO-ers.

Some other services I encountered and I just want to mention since they are just to good to pass:

- Make cash collecting email addresses - that’s how you get spammed
- Custom made sites for $45 that I think come optimized and already ranking
- Traffic sale / 500,000-2,000,000 targeted visitors - this is bound to get your ad platform bursting with cash or Alexa ranking going up