Profitable Productive Blogging

I have asked myself, and others, this question many times. It all started with the answering machine. Then we had emails, mobile phones, and now mobile phones with emails. We now have Twitter, & ppl posting constantly about their lives. It isn't that I don't see how it could benefit this blog, but simply put, quite a bit of the time I don't give a da-- that you are sitting in Starbucks reading a book. Unless of course there is some benefit to me from that information, such as you are a friend I'm meeting for coffee. Also, I really don't figure you give a da-- that I am sitting somewhere either. I understand Twitter goes beyond that, but you get the point. I use twitter, and yes I've posted that I was sitting in a Starbucks. So we have people running around with their iPhones and Crackberries worried they are missing emails, phone calls, and text messages. They are doing this while listening to music and Twittering away. With all of the social networking a

I have been asked this question several times and noticed it posted recently so here is a quick explanation of what the eCPM means in adsense. I also calculate this for my other contextual advertising programs as it a very useful tool. eCPM is "effective cost per thousand." The m is a holdover, I'm assuming, from manufacturing where it is "cost per million." It is basically estimated earnings for every thousand impressions received. Don't be fooled by excessively high numbers at the start because as your sample size, i.e. impressions, increase your eCPM will most likely drop. eCPM is calculated by dividing your earnings by your impressions in thousands. earnings -------------- x 1000 = eCPM impressions I use it to compare ad units to help find optimal color, size, left/right placement etc. example: ad unit 1 has 500 impressions with earnings of $2.00 giving you an eCPM of $4.00. ad unit 2 received 400 impressions with earnings of 1.75 for an eC

Watch Shel Israel, Author and social media expert, discus Twitter &its far-reaching potential in the business world. Shel Israel's Twitterville Part 1 Shel Israel's Twitterville Part 2 later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

Have you all seen this video of a flash mob protest @ a Bay area Whole Foods? Sorta funny. What do you think? Do Americans protest too much or not enough? Have you ever been involved in a peaceful protest? Not peaceful? later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

Yep...After a very short meaningless totally anecdotal study, I have decided that beer makes my blog better. How, you ask? Well let me explain. For those of you who drop by on a regular basis or subscribe to the feed and read that way, you may have noticed that I haven't posted much on many of my blogs recently. Since the middle of November I have been very busy and just have run out of time. I just have waaayyy to many projects going, and have been eliminating superfluous time-consuming ones since the first of the year. I made the mistake of getting too many irons in the fire and have been paying the price. I was on vacation quite a bit from the middle of Nov through the end of the year and just didn't have time to get to everything. I realized I was just spread too thin to really be enjoying the fruits of my endeavors and decided to begin a New Year's pruning. During the process of looking over data and analyzing projects from my blogs, affiliate marketing, variou

Watch Obama deliver the opening address to the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

 Step 1 - First Hand Product Review La Cense Beef has been one of my most successful affiliate program MTD for August. I ran two ads with different keywords and had great success. Right now they are running a special for first time customers. Get 4 free steakburgers with purchase of $75 or more from La Cense Beef when you use the coupon code ATSB75! As with all of my most successful affiliate marketing programs, pay attention this is a key to success, I ordered the product and tried it out. I don't want to just put some ads and links out there about something I have not tried myself. Well, I must report that La Cense steaks are on par with some of the best steaks I have ever had. Grass fed beef tends to be leaner than grain fed and so cooking time becomes a bit more critical. I have to admit the first steak I cooked I overdid it a bit. Hey I was watching the Cubs game :). Well after this first trial and error the results were wonderful. The taste of the steaks and burgers had

Got some information you want to circulate quickly and extensively? Learn what it takes to get people to pass it along. later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more moron

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us. - George Eliot This is an interesting statement. What is your answer to the title question? Do you even know what the world believes about you? Do you even care? Does it even matter? I think the statement is true in many cases. People become what other people perceive them as. People will let others perceptions of them define who they are and what they become. This is not a long post but I wanted to get you thinking. Are you the person you truly want to be? Or are you what other people percieve you to be? Are your perceptions of yourself different than others? How do you determine who is correct? Lots of questions I know. Let me have your cognitive content on the matter. Leave a comment and let us know what you think. Because you need to know what I think! :) later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my F

Let me tell you a story and ask some questions. How heavy is your glass water? And if it is so dang heavy why don't you put it down and rest? Now the story. A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter.” It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.” “As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it a

This is my way of saying don't bite off more than you can chew. Time and chance happens to us all and it pays to have a plan B. Car breaks down? at least you can push it. See what I mean. Preparation and planning can overcome quite a bit. Do you have a backup expense fund, 3-6 months expenses? Do you have life insurance and an estate plan, ESPECIALLY if you have kids? Do you have one of the thousands of mortgages that are going to eat you alive as the rates adjust? Do you have credit card debt out the wazoo? These are just a few questions to ask yourself. Spend a minute on this fine day to examine your life just a bit. Take an introspective moment and truthfully answer the question "have a bought a car I can't push?" If your answer is yes start taking action today! That is what was on my mind. later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

Okay, just sitting here wondering once again why they make extra small, hereafter referred to as XS, and extra large, hereafter referred to as XL, but they don't make extra medium, hereafter referred to as XM. No I have not lost it and yes I know what medium means. Let me explain and maybe you can understand a bit better. I used to be a medium. No problems everyone has mediums and things seemed to fit just fine. Then I got the bright idea of working out, lifting weights and what not. Well I've bulked(muscle not fat :) just to clarify) up a bit, and have now run into a bit of a problem. My mediums no longer fit quite the way they used to. They are tight and bunch a bit in the shoulders and chest. Okay so I took this as a sign that I needed to move up to a large. NOPE. Didn't work. It looked like I was swimming in fabric, and wearing clothes that don't fit makes you look bad and cheap. I like my clothes to look as close to tailored, and even have some done, as possible.

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us. - George Eliot This is an interesting statement. What is your answer to the title question? Do you even know what the world believes about you? Do you even care? Does it even matter? I think the statement is true in many cases. People become what other people perceive them as. People will let others perceptions of them define who they are and what they become. This is not a long post but I wanted to get you thinking. Are you the person you truly want to be? Or are you what other people perceive you to be? Are your perceptions of yourself different than others? How do you determine who is correct? Lots of questions I know. Let me have your cognitive content on the matter. Leave a comment and let us know what you think. later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

I heard this joke somewhere sometime in the past...came back to memory while sitting at Cubs game. Three men sitting behind a couple nuns, their headgear partially blocking the men's view, at a baseball game decided to heckle the nuns in an effort to get them to move. In a very loud voice the first guy said, "I think I'm going to move to Utah. There are only 100 nuns living there." The second said, just as loudly, "I think I'm going to move to Montana. There are only 50 nuns living there." The third, even louder, piped in "I'm heading to Idaho. There are only 25 nuns living there." Finally having had enough one of the nuns turned around, looked at the men and in a the sweetest, calmest, most saintly voice said, "Why don't you go to hell....there aren't any nuns living there." later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitte

Tell me that is not a great tag line for a new line of Plus Size clothing. You ever wonder why short fat people can never find pants long enough? I have. I have also wondered why the pants and shorts ride up so bad? That has to be uncomfortable. That is where my new line of plus size clothing comes in. It will be designed to ride up comfortably yet still be fashionable. If you can't keep them from riding, design them to ride comfortably. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Oh come on....You've thought it you just never had the guts to say it :) That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it because you need to know what I think! later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , or subscribing to my FEED .

You ever had one of those days where you are the statue? Where it seems that everything that could go wrong did? Or just a period of time where things just didn't work out the way you had hoped and you feel a bit like life has "dumped" on you? I know I have. I have always made it through though. With the help of faith, family and friends you can make it through anything. It doesn't matter if it is just a single bad day or a lifetime of misfortune. The bible says, if you believe that way, that God will never allow more to be put on you than you can bear. No one likes to go through hardship. But, If you look at it as God showing a bit of confidence in you it does make it a bit easier. If you aren't of a religious nature, or even if you are, just remember that time and chance happens to every man. Into each life at least a little rain must fall. Life sucks then you die. Some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue. Because you need to know what

Okay maybe this is just me, but what is it with people and not ironing. I know sometimes you are in a rush or just running to the store and throw on some "grubbies." But please I see people that are in "nice(er)" clothes that are wrinkled as he--. I probably dislike ironing as much as the next guy/girl but hey I do it. Not because I like it but because I want to look like what I am and want to be. If you want to be successful you have to dress the part. I'm not saying you have to go out and spend tons of cash on a wardrobe, but you can at least make what you have look the best it can. I heard it said once that "all men are created equal...and then they get dressed." I am not going to rant on and on but I encourage everyone that if you want to be a success dress for it. Sorry, I was just out for a bit last evening and saw some of the scuzziest people and it struck a nerve. Because You Need To Know What I Think! later all and have a profitable and

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. William Shakespeare I have noticed as I've traveled the blogosphere that too many blogs talk about making money but I have found that too few actually show and tell. They are in my opinion - blogs, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing . Too many have lost their way. The have become a shell of the blog they were and could be. We the blogging community have become focused on simply building traffic numbers, giving away "stuff" to attract readers, talking about how, when, and what to post, and about our latest dollar amount. What we fail to do is connect with our readers. We need to give more substance and less sound, more instructions, more guidance and less fury. I am not so vain as to assume I am a blogging expert or an authority on making money online. There are lit

Are you unhappy with your current host and wanting to change? Do you think you may be spending a wee bit too much on hosting? If you are looking to compare hosts and save some money you need to check out WebHostingGeeks dot com. Even if you are happy you should still visit WebHostingGeeks dot com. They have great reviews and ratings of many of the top hosts for blogging or for any other type of site. One of the great things about how the site is set up is that readers can review the host that they are using currently even if they don't go through WebHostingGeeks dot com. In addition to the ratings and reviews they also have a ton of great information related to web site hosting . If you are just starting to think about hosting your own blog or site then you should check out all of the great articles they have on the subject. Even if you already have a web host and are experienced in that area there is plenty of information on everything from beginner instructions all the way to

St. Joseph Pier At Sunset by: Proletariatof1 So…I Got Political. While not an article about Twitter I did come across this article on Twitter and it is from a person I follow and enjoy tweeting with. Of course it is also a great article. Stop by and read it and let Jen know how you found her blog. The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines Top 237 Twitter Users Who Will Follow You Back Why Replies On Twitter Are Far More Damaging Than Direct Messages What Happens When an Irresistible Force Opposes an Immovable Object? Why It Pays to be a Twitter Snob How To Tweet At Work Without Getting Caught Display The Profitable Productive Posts Banner Would you like to show people your post was selected as a Profitable Productive Post? Copy the code below and paste it at the bottom of your post. <a href="http://www.profitableproductiveblogging.com/2009/04/profitable-productive-posts-vol-10.htmlgt;<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvX

I have never really done an audio or video post. I have considered doing video in the past, but never have gotten to it. I would like to start doing maybe several video posts a year and possibly several audio as well. What are your thoughts on video posting or any type of web-casting? Do you currently do video posts on you blog? Do you do any pod casting or other audio or video broadcasts personally or for your blog? Do any of you use Blog Talk Radio? later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , subscribing to my FEED , or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites.

No, not the old wrinkly guy smoker cough type hacker. I'm talking a real life !gasp! computer hacker. "Ooohh it sounds so glamorous," you say. Well maybe kinda sorta, but you can make money doing it. Here is the lowdown on the deelio for ya. Have you seen that movie with Len DiCaprio "Catch Me If You Can?" Well if you were paying attention you know that he is now a high paid forgery consultant to the banking industry. I said that to say this, you can learn how to be "that" guy. You can turn your love for computers and "hacking" into a legal :) money-making endeavor. Okay now I'm really going to get down to it and tell you where and how. With the recent news of hackers cracking into and stealing Gov docs on fighter aircraft you can see the necessity for well trained IT security people. IT security jobs are on the rise even in this economy and the pay is on the rise as well. There is a strong demand for "ethical hackers" to a

I have been on Twitter for about a week now and am pushing 500 followers. I tweet when I can and try to keep my tweets interesting and as close as possible to the "what r u doing" motif. I do have to admit that once I got above 400 followers I started throwing in about 1 "advertweet" a day just to see the response. So far I haven't had any negative responses or explicit unfollows from fellow twitter users. My question to you is, "Do you advertweet?" Why or why not? What are your feelings on the practice? Would you unfollow a person simply because of an advertweet? Is one or two every once in a while okay? later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , subscribing to my FEED , or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites.

There is a program I wanted to pass along to you all. It is the Niche Profit Classroom and it is an excellent training program for new online marketers as well as veteran marketers. The program provides over 400 short, easy to follow videos covering all phases of internet marketing (niche research, website creation, traffic generation, pay per click, article marketing, forum marketing, blogging, press release marketing, social networking). If you are looking for some good information on developing a successful niche marketing business you might find this program useful. Each month NPC provides two, thoroughly researched, niche market products including an ebook, audio up-sell, sales letter, website template, 10 day mini-course, seo optimized articles, keyword research, and a 21 day traffic blueprint. They pretty much provide you with everything you need to start your online business as it relates to niche marketing. later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get

I have been using AdBrite for quite some time now and really like their program. They offer inline ads, contextual ads, and active interstitials. AdBrite has been a very successful program for me both as a publisher and as an advertiser. Now AdBrite has begun something that, to my knowledge, is unprecedented in the contextual ad marketplace. They are offering to beat your earnings with other ad publishers or if they can't they will run the other ads for you. I have tried this out and have been very happy. I can place one ad block and know that the ads running in it are earning my the maximum amount possible. You can run ads from your current ad networks within your AdBrite code, and they will always show the ads that earn you the most money. In other words, when they can earn you the most, they will show our ads. When they can't, they will rotate your other ads back in. You can't lose. I have tried this with Bidvertiser and Yahoo so far with good success. If you h

You have probably heard about Jennifer Aniston dropping John Mayer over his Twitter obsession. Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore had a few arguments over Ashton's constant twittering and of course the picture. There is even a new term for the twittering Hollywood crowd. Twitterati . Those two are highly publicized and talked about cases. What about others in the twittering masses that have ruined a relationship by constant connection via twitter, facebook, or other social media? Do you have any stories where social media has damaged a relationship? I used to be on Myspace, I've never been on Facebook, and I just recently started using Twitter. I like to stay in touch with friends and stay connected, but I'm not sure about the efficay of constant contact with far away strangers. I have seen people ignore all of the wonderful people around them because they were on the phone talking, texting, twittering, or checking Facebook. When used properly I think social media is a great t

later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by Following me on Twitter , subscribing to my FEED , or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites. You also might want to check out my other blog Cman's Cognitive Content .

I have been reading a lot lately about the demographics of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. All of the news coming out lately is showing that the demographics are skewing more and more to the older age groups. This is kinda counter-intuitive for most people as the standard way of thinking is that younger people tend to be more tech savvy and spend more time online and social networking than older people do. Another article on CNN.com just today talked about how the fastest growing group on Facebook is women over 55. Now as an affiliate marketer and blogger information like this is critical to my marketing efforts. There is a site I check out for information on Facebook. It is a site called Inside Facebook and they track the growth of Facebook. The site is full of a ton of useful information for those of us that market on Facebook. If you do market on facebook you should check them out. later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profit

What do you think? Would a shirt with that on it sell and make money? Hmmmmm .... I wonder? There are a lot of places out there that allow you to do custom shirts and sell them online, Cafepress comes to mind of course. Did you know though that VistaPrint does t-shirts ? I didn't. I have used their business cards quite a bit as a great almost free marketing tool for my online businesses. Well now that I have found out that VistaPrint dot com does t shirt printing I am considering trying them out. I would love to have shirts with various affiliate marketing and blogging quotes, quips, and tips on them. I think they might do fairly well. Of course with a site like Cafepress you don't have the overhead of the actual shirt. The downside of course is that their prices are a bit high for end buyer. Well relatively speaking. With VistaPrint you can use one of their designs and change it up a bit to fit your specs, or you can upload your own design. Now if you decide to upload th

We all know that in the land of the search engines Google is king. There are a plethora of other search engines out there specializing in specific areas of search such as people, businesses, etc., and most have some good aspects. Well another search engine has joined the fray. The AAfter search engine has a a few options that I really like. One is that the results seem to be just a bit more targeted for many searches than do those from google. I took a couple of screen shots to show you what I mean. In the first picture you can see where I googled zip 46322 and it comes up Hammond, which it isn't it is Highland. After the first google maps result that is wrong anyway the others just don't seem real targeted. In this second picture you can see the results when I typed in the zip 46322 into the AAfter web search engine. You can see that the results are much more targeted and that it actually gets the location correct. It also has quick links to weather

Have I got your attention? Good. You are probably wanting to ask the question, "Do you own a home in Belize and a Porsche?" Well the answer is no on both accounts, but that I am however well on my way to both. I already have a nice place to live and a nice car to drive, but I am looking to retire at 45 to Belize and when I do I want to import a Porsche when I do. The beauty of retiring to Belize is that at 45 you can retire there and pay no income taxes and not duties or fees on your personal items brought in. To qualify for the retirement status you have to be making $2000 a month in income from sources outside Belize. For me that shouldn't be a problem as I make more than that now from affiliate marketing and blogging. I will be making a trip down there in August of this year to look at lots to buy. There are some wonderful communities down there where you can get a beautiful lot for less than $20000. These are water access lots in private gated communities with all t

Who wants a free 22" HDTV? I know I would. Sure it isn't a huge screen but it would be great for the kid's room, kitchen, or even the bathroom for people that just can't get enough. I just purchased a 52" Plasma full 1080P TV and it is great to watch. I certainly wouldn't mind having a second. With the analog to digital TV change that is happening having a new HDTV would be great for just about anybody. HD content has exploded recently with more and more channels, HD streaming, HD gaming with the PS3 or XBox. Charter is also offering a grand prize that includes a 52” LCD flat screen HDTV, a Home Theater System, and one year of free Charter Digital Cable® service with HD programming! Not a bad prize package. If a current ,hey many contests like this ignore current customers, or new customer orders Cable, High Speed or Telephone online at Charter.com throughout April – they are automatically entered upon installation to win. Why don't you visit the Charter

When I first started this blog inthe first part of '07 I really wanted to start and expand the blog with absolutely no out-of-pocket expenses. I needed to advertise this blog and get people visiting. There are many ways to do this that are free, but some do cost money. I decided to try out different ways of earning money quickly and easily online so that I could cover any advertising expenses for the blog. Signing up is quick and easy and you can actually earn some decent little money and every once-in-a-great-while you can get free products to test. later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by subscribing to my FEED or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites. You also might want to check out my other blog Cman's Cognitive Content .

WordPress users tend to look down a bit on those that use the free hosted Blogger platform. I use both and there are things I like about both Blogger and WordPress. I have blogs hosted that use WP and blogs such as this one that are still using Blogger. I have always liked the "almost" WYSIWYG template editor that Blogger has. You can move your stuff around or if you are so inclined you can edit the HTML directly. This is a huge plus for folks that are new to blogging. When I am talking with people that are looking to start a blog and get there feet wet in this domain I usually recommend starting with Blogger. The learning curve is much shorter and allows them to focus initially on content and building community. With the improvements made over the last year in the Blogger realm you really can have a great blog using only Blogger. If you are wanting a broader presence that goes beyond simple blogging then yes WP is for you. WP is a great platform not just for basic blogging

Huh? I thought that the TARP money to banks was to help them out in the short term. The WSJ is reporting today, in an article titled Obama Wants to Control the Banks , that the Obama admin is not letting certain banks return or repay TARP funds. Once banks and other financial institutions were stable and able to the money was supposed to be paid back. Well now it comes out that the Obama administration is not letting certain banks return the money. This proves what I have been saying all along. It isn't about the economy. It isn't about helping or saving any bank, company, or other institution. It is about power and control plain and simple. Now we have this Pay for Performance Act which was just passed by the House, most likely will be by the senate, and most assuredly signed by the power grabbing President. This Pay for Performance Act, if signed into law, would allow the administration to determine pay for anyone from the lowest guy pushing a broom to execs. They would hav

Who still writes checks? I hear that all the time. People like me I guess. I almost never carry cash. I never use credit cards. I pay most of my bills online or with bill pay. You would think given all of those things that I would not really write checks. I do though. I actually write quite a few. Writing checks gives me a way to verify payment for certain things like lease payments and child support payments; Tansactions where a record like a cancelled check is a good idea.Okay so I don't write them at a store as a form of payment, but they do come in handy for certain things. Now just about any bank or credit union out there gives away free checks with their checking accounts. They do this because they know so many people use checks anymore and because the competition for your deposit dollars is fierce. I know that that checks they give for free are the plain simple drab design everyone else uses, but hey they are free. As a person who is frugal I don't like to waste money on

Hey there everyone... I am now tweeting so you can all follow me! U can get my interesting observations on life and of course what I am doing at various places and times throughout my life. I know that I am a bit behind the curve on this one, but i'll do my best to make up for it. I was just waiting until I had some time to figure out a way to make money from it. Okay not really. Anyway, here is my address so follow me. http://twitter.com/proletariatof1 later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by subscribing to my FEED or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites. You also might want to check out my other blog Cman's Cognitive Content .

Hmmmm....Is there such an animal? Ha...I'm funny :)... Anyway I did want to pass along some information that could be lucrative for you. IDUG is sponsoring a contest for XML developers in an attempt to increase awareness and familiarity with XQuery, XML and DB2. The IDUG contest doesn't have just one way to win it has five separate ways for individuals of all skill levels so you enter one track or all five! Each sub-contest has its own recognition and prizes. The types of skills required to enter cover those with a passing interest in XML and database technology all the way to those with hardcore programming skills in DB2. I would fall in the former of those to categories. Here is a quick explanation from the website on each of the different areas of the contest. Video Contest: Invent a creative use of XML, XQuery or DB2 and record yourself doing it. Gadget Contest: Develop a downloadable gadget or widget leveraging DB2. Query Contest: Use XQuery to find five answers. The

If you think something small can't make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room. How about lingerie? That is small, but man can it make a difference in the mood, over say a flannel nightgown :). Small things can and will make a difference. It doesn't take a million dollar necklace, or a 'round-the-world trip. It only takes "that" look, a smile, a compliment, a hand, a touch, a hug. To many times in life small things get left undone in the pursuit of "big" things that never seem to get accomplished. When things finally come to an end you oft times will find it was the accumulation of small things done or left undone that was the undoing or the glue that held everything together. Take some time today to reflect on some small things you are doing that are causing problems. Or small things you aren't doing that could bring about positive results. Call your wife or husband for no reason at all but just to say you love them and how hap

That is the big question isn't it? In this down economy are you still making money online? I know that my profits have dropped almost across the board. From blogging to affiliate marketing I have seen my profit margins squeezed as of late. I have been trying a few new things to try and add some more revenue streams to offset the drops, but only time will tell. I am still doing well overall, but many that I have spoken with are not. How are you dealing with your drop in income? Have you even experienced a drop? If so how big, say on a percentage basis? I haven't ran all the numbers but I would say that my revenue is down somewhere in the neighborhood of %25. I was just curious how everyone else is doing out there? later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day Get more profitable and productive information by subscribing to my FEED or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites. You also might want to check

Historically, logos have been more a luxury than a necessity. Businesses attracted customers because they were the only game in town, so to speak. No longer. Today's highly competitive industries, global markets and visually oriented consumers have catapulted the logo to prominence. Now your logo is one of the most critical components of your brand. So how can something so little make such a big difference? Your branding efforts not only start with your logo, they are dictated by it. Your logo appears on all of your sales tools, from your business cards to your website. As a result, your logo design influences the design of all your sales tools, for better or worse. A professional-looking logo can be leveraged to create professional-looking materials. A poorly designed logo cannot. In other words, you need a "brandable" logo one that you can make use of when designing other materials to brand your company. "Brandable" logos are