Tagged as: Geek, Internet, Seen-Around
Sep
20
Nobody likes to get error messages. But I must admit that I do like it when they’re fun. Better than getting a stack trace (but usually not as helpful). They might not make up for the fact that your computer just messed up, but they’ll let you know that the people behind the messages are real people as well.
This particular goodie was probably a result of outpacing the browser with the keyboard shortcuts. Yes you better believe it, I am that fast.
These are the kinds of people that live by the “if life gives you lemons, then make lemonade” mentality. Good for them.
Tagged as: Contests, Internet
Jul
28
I definitely enjoy entering contests. I always figure that you only have a chance if you try, right? Well there’s a pretty sweet contest where 5 Minutes For Mom is giving away a 37″ TV (hooked up by Best Buy, thank you very much). All you have to do is leave a comment and create a blog post linking to them. Pretty sweet deal for the person that wins, and it’s a pretty smart move for them in order to get tons of link backs. Everyone wins. Well except for everyone who enters and actually doesn’t get the TV. So actually not too many people “win.” Oh well, I’m just hoping that I’m the one that actually does win!
Tagged as: Internet, Review
Jul
17
So I think that one interesting effect of the Internet is the ability for people to find out for themselves what a good price is. There are a plethora of websites out there that can do different things for you. There are sites like fatwallet that allow you to make some money off of your purchases, there are plenty like gotapex and slickdeals that will point you in the right direction for big deals, and there are even sites that will help you find coupons. You could search on google and definitely come up with coupons for particular stores that you want to buy from.
I’ve seen all types of websites that will offer this for you. Many of them are good even if they are frequented by essentially the cheapskates of the land. But they let their money go further, and that’s not a bad thing. I happened onto a Webbyplanet footlocker coupon that seemed to be on a site that one could go to where the coupons are consolidated. They separate the stores by category, and it seems like their site is fairly simple enough. It allows you to access the information that you want to get to without too much surfing, and it’s nice that they’re not trying to endlessly spam you with advertisements in order to get to what you want. I’m not sure that I really like the look of the styling of the site what with the colors, but I suppose that’s always going to be a judgment call.
As for the Footlocker coupon, I’ve had experience with ordering from Footlocker’s site first hand. I have actually ordered a few pairs of athletic shoes from them, and I’ve found the experiences to be quite painless. Although I did once order some cleats with their express shipping, and it didn’t come in time. But then it took so long that it passed their guarantee so I actually got the shipping free. And that’s not half bad! I’ve noticed that the best times to buy are when they have their “friends and family” deal or when they have their clearance sales. Just beware then if you wear anything besides very small or very large shoes.
Anyways so after all of these strange random thoughts, the moral is this: spend some time to use your resources!
Tagged as: Internet, Money, Review
Jun
22
Trying out a ReviewMe to see how I feel about it. I like ReviewMe’s set up because even though they offer to pay you for reviews, they are in no way forcing your hand in what you say. So good or bad, that’s how they roll.
One thing that’s pretty big (okay huge in some places) nowadays is making money off of the Internet. Qoo Forum is an approach to the issue that (as far as I know) is pretty unique. They are trying to start a forum where people can talk about anything they want to. Where does the money making come in? They propose that if you attain a certain point (currently 50 posts) then they will allow you to have a chance to have ads from your Google AdSense Publisher account be placed on the forum itself.
As I described in Inconsiderate Internet Browsing, advertisements work just as they do for other media. Advertisers get to show whatever they want and in turn they pay for that right. Specifically for the Internet, this means that you can get paid for views or you can get paid for the number of clicks on your advertisements.
The look of the site is nice and clean that is easy on the eyes, even if it does seem a little cartoonish because everything on the site has their edges rounded.
As you can somewhat see, they are trying to reach out to as many categories as they possibly can. There are forums within the Qoo forum ranging from music to gadgets to making money to sports! I think that this might be a problem for them in the future. Granted it allows for growth in any which way. However, just like other things with no purpose, it might fall flat on its face just because it does not have a single intention. I know that I have gone to forums simply because they were forums that were much more centered around a main topic. That might have been software or cars, but I went to that forum because there were people there that knew more than I did.
I’m not sure that’s the kind of people that will be attracted to this site. It seems as if the people that will post here are simply people that are in it to get money for themselves. It’s hard to attract the stable reliable posters that are able to answer people’s questions with that kind of mindset. The reason is that those people who frequent forums to help others do so out of the goodness in their hearts. They like helping others. They are not people who are out to make a quick buck.
However, it does seem like they might have something if my thoughts on people is off. The advertisements in each thread are pretty well placed. They blend well with their styling, but they are slightly off-putting because there are just so many of them.
So if you can get an advertisement there, you do seem to have a reasonable chance of making some money. I’m sure that Qoo will also be having much of their own advertisements placed in the site as well (of course they’re revenue sharing, not revenue giving).
This is all of the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality. And that’s not too bad of an idea because it seems like it was easy to set up with existing tools. They’re utilizing vBulletin for their forum software, they had to think of an interesting domain, they need the hardware to host it all, and then they can utilize Google’s existing ad network!
Some things that I saw while looking around where that I wasn’t actually sure how likely you are to get your advertisements on the threads that you start once you hit that magic 50 post level. In the FAQ it says in one place “Currently, you are entitled to 50% chance of showing your ad code within the threads that are started by you” whereas in a similar section it says “Once you have reached that level, your ad code will be applied to all the threads started by you.” That’s confusing to say the least. Additionally I noticed some grammatical errors along the lines of some of the items that I mentioned in Learn Some English (Part 1). They should get someone to give it a good read through and through to give it a more professional feel to it.
All in all, I think that the Qoo Forum has an intriguing idea that might turn out to pan out for lots of people. However, seeing as how they are brand spanking new, I’m not sure how well they will actually do. They are working off of people’s greed, and seeing as how that is very apparent in many people, they just might do alright.
