A very special thanks to Edrei or better known as Kamigoroshi for helping me tweak this blog. Yes, the penguin guy. People who dropped by here probably didn’t really notice the right side bar. I had been trying to make my recent postings appear as a list for the past few days. It’s really getting on my nerves and it really did not help the fact this is my first encounter with WP. My old blog is hosted in idiot-proof Blogger.

I just want to thank Edrei for his time and help. For without him, I’ll still be having lousy days messing with my codes.

Remember those Robert Ludlum novels about spies and conspiracy theories? You don’t? You must be young. Before the curtain came down, there were plenty of suspicions floating around. Spies and undercover agents infiltrating the government. Everybody is on alert and you don’t want to be sleeping with the enemy. Everything and everyone is viewed with caution.

It’s happening here in the blogosphere today. Back in my early blogging days, things were much simpler. The most damage a meme can do would probably be your time spent conjuring up good answers. Perhaps you feel obligated to come up with something funny or profound so people take notice. By the way, it’s OK to play the hypocrital moaner who bitch how you hate being tagged though in honesty you’re half gloating the fact somebody actually think you’re important enough to be tagged. It comes with the territory. It’s uncool to be happy getting tagged…..

Well, those days are gone. Come today, you’ll be overwhelmed with suspicions should somebody tagged you. The whole meme thing today is revolutionized by 2 words. Link bait. If you did not monetize your blog, you’re oblivious to the underlying motive. For people who monetized their blogs, we know PR is an asset. Advertisers care zit whom you are. You’re a nice person? Who cares? It’s your blog PR that does the talk. It takes time to build PR and you can lose your blog ranking if you go all out and drain every ounce of its worth with links. Personally I do find it hard to justify cheap sleazy momentary link scheme in the form of memes. You know something is amiss when you’re asked to list and link the whole list of participants. I’m not talking about 5, more like 50 at one go.

Well, if you’re a willing partner hoping to fish some links yourself I have no objection. As long as it’s not under any fake pretence and spoken outright ‘you link me and I’ll link you. Let’s help each other out’. I have no problem with that, it’s your blog, it’s your choice….. While at it, social nicety dictates one should not go all personal when someone is not an interested participant. Other people have choices too.

I spoke about memes, but in honesty, is the blogosphere really full of such dubious stuff where ulterior motives lurk at every nook and corner? Heard about the one regarding the West eradicating the East in PPP? Not with secret lasers or scentless gas. It gets better. Eliminate the East in the guise of a writing contest. Codename bad English and lousy grammar….

Personally I call it 100% unfounded paranoia. You believe? Well, you’re free to arrive at your conclusion as much as I did at mine. I guess everyone has the right to make the call himself. Live and Let Live.

There’s going to be something new from PPP. Apart from the 1K Tuesday I wrote previously, they’re now throwing in a Wednesday special. How special? Special ops targetting non-US posties only. Now, it’s all too easy to arrive at the conclusion when the word non-US posties crop up and automatically think good news for the Malaysian posties. The fact is, it is basically US vs the rest of the world. Apart from the US posties, you have the European, Australian, Canadian and whatever country in between vying for the extra Wednesday ops.

Now, the amount thrown out is not exactly drawing oohs and gasps… I think it’s an extra USD250 from PPP in the form of 2 USD50 ops and one USD150 op. That’s beside my point. The post written by Ted (PPP boss) announcing the Wednesday deal did gave the impression the extras were thrown in, in view of the recent segmentation decision. Segmentation of posties meant advertisers now have the choice of targeting their audience by allowing or disallowing posties from certain countries to write for them.

Personally I have no problem with the segmentation thing. It’s the advertisers’ money so it’s their call. Nothing I can bitch about.

Now, I don’t want to sound I’m too easy, but then in all honesty, tell me if you’re one of the non-US postie you don’t feel good being appreciated? Don’t bitch to me about the amount. Yeah, it’s not big. But then how many bosses you’ve worked with in real life actually give a damn when you complain? It’s the thought that counts.

The past 2 days had been total madness for PPP posties. The company was throwing out 1K worth of ops to the masses. Without segmentation or regards to PR ranking. That could only mean one thing. Plenty of restless caffeine junkie and lethargic folks wondering around.

I would know. I am one of them. I was not feeling well but well enough in spirit to stay up until ridiculous hours just to see the ops rolled out and immediately turned grey. (reserved)

For the life of me, I honestly fail to see the point. Was PPP trying to jam their own server enticing these posties to circle like vulture waiting for its prey? What higher purpose does it serve? Beats the hell out of me.

Sometime back, I took my outstation friend to my favorite Japanese restaurant. Personally, I think this restaurant offers the best tasting Japanese cuisine. My friend, an avid traveller was however not impressed. He told me yes, the food tasted good, but then you cannot exactly call their food ‘authentic.’ Huh? My friend being one of those lucky people who got to travel around the world and sample the best cuisine each country has to offer, explained to me authentic Japanese food is supposed to be bland. The de facto essence of Japanese cuisine is the harmonic balance between freshness of ingredients and taste. However, my friend being a Malaysian and had just as much as I, subjected our taste buds to the extremity of what our local cuisine offered, concurred the restaurant food is good in a Malaysian kind of way. No, it might not work for the Japs, but the locals loved it. Their business is good.

Now, when we talk about blogging, I’ve seen enough people finding disdain when blogs go ‘localized.’ The language purists will shout ‘Murder.’ Murdering English with colloquial writings and localized slangs only true blood Malaysians would know. I of course cannot say any individual is wrong to think that…. as long as he/she keeps it as their personal belief and conviction. Unfortunately the fact is, many of these individuals has been especially vocal, condemning localized flavored blogs, convicting them for killing the English language.

Read The Full Story…

I got this piece from Ah Pek.

Buy a blogger. Another money making avenue. Despite the ugly sound of it, it’s perfectly respectable. Nothing illegal. Yeah, I know, it sounds tacky. Cheap. Personally it’ll sound a whole lot more respectable if it’s just called Blogs For Hire. But then, where money making is concerned, nobody gives a hoot.

Bloggers interested in getting hired are asked to register for free. I did. You can put up your picture for potential advertisers to see and needless to say, I did. I’ve no stats to back me up, but common sense tells me if I am a potential advertiser, I would like to see a face. The very least, know whom my money is going to go to. No?

Who says? I say. I’m not the one forking money to pay you people but I’m already just as curious what you folks look like. Now, imagine I am standing from the advertiser viewpoint as the one paying. I sure would like to see a face.

Still not convinced?

Alright, I’ll come clean. I admit I am just saying it because I want to see your face. Make things easy for the hired marksman to identify and take out the competition. However, you can always turn things to your advantage. Just put up the picture of your hated co-worker or ex-lover. Yes, or boss. Then I’ll be doing you a big favour.

Seriously, if you are a potential advertiser, I do think this is a great alternative. You get to deal with the blogger directly and eliminate the middleman. That is good business sense. Everybody is happy.

I love their Terms of Service. Now, I’m no fan of reading those Terms of Service. 50% of the time I’ve no idea what they’re talking about, the other 50% I can’t even make out the fine print. Do I look like someone from the legal profession? Geez. But check out Buy a Blogger’s TOS.

Basically, we are not responsible for anything regarding payment, quality of blog posts, untimely deaths, or anyting else under the sun. We are a middle man that provides a free contact avenue between advertisers and bloggers. The road ends there for us.

Really, in the blogosphere how do you define sincerity? You might say, who cares? Well, obviously there are plenty of people out there who cares. More than you know. Really, there are good folks out there who think they ought to be showered with sincerity before you’re worthy of their attention. Meaning, worthy of them to drop by and read your stuffs. Sometimes not regular, even sporadic blog hopppers are demanding bloggers to be sincere.

Now, we know measuring sincerity is no exact science. You cannot measure these things. So, if exact is not in the books, let’s resort to the conventional. Like? Like do you see any bling bling stuffs on the sidebar? Oh, Oh, do I see advertisements? Next, the worst fornication - the unholy matrimony of bloggers and paid posts. Do I see the damn word ’sponsored.’? That’s it, that’s it. I’m not coming to this blog because I don’t appreciate being used as a tool for this blogger to make money.

Now what’s all this? It’s just a little thought of mine when I went to visit one of my regular blog haunt. This blog I went, is one of those ‘thinking’ blogs. The blogger writes good mind provoking pieces. Not ramblings like mine, but real thought-out pieces. And yes, they’re long. One fine day, this blogger put up a poll. I don’t know if the blogger is serious or just poking a bit, the poll asked his readers to give their take. Would they come to his blog if he’s doing paid posts?

You know what? Majority of them voted they will never come again if he starts to write paid posts.

Huh? Look, this blogger is not those who write 2 lines and furnished the rest with photos. Neither is there any sloppy C&P job. I can safely say, the pieces he put up is oozing with sincerity.

Question time - if sincerity is such a rare commodity these readers valued so much, then are we talking about one sided sincerity? If you place your faith on something, I can only think it is logical you ought to be practicing what you believe. Sincerity.

Will the sincere ‘unconditional’ blog reader please stand up?

We need more of you.

Now, I’m not invincible. So, there are no names and no links. Just got to take my word for it…. these stuffs are actually said in the forum. Did I hear the word coward? Yep, that’s me. Being a newbie in PPP I don’t want to start stepping on toes offending people, but then I have the dilemma of being a blogger by instincts. So, I’m bound to do stupid things… like writing out my 2 cents here. Please understand this is going to be one of those ambiguous post. Frustrating to read but then a necessity in my interest to save my own ass and at the same time savour the satisfaction of bitching it a bit.

Here goes

There’s some Tom Cruises of Bloggywood out there who think they’re paid peanuts for the ops. Hey, they’re the Tom Cruises, meaning they’re the A-list. Those damn directors are paying A-list people way too low. Afterall, they’re in the A-list, that has to count for something right? The solution among the Tom Cruises it seemed, was to decline all the low offers. Everyone in the A-list applauded. Wow, what an ingenious idea. End of story? You wish….

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Technorati Profile

Oops,  there’s no post… I’m just claiming my blog. Thanks for wondering anyway.

“How could anyone take them (bloggers on free domains) seriously when they don’t even have their own website?”

Well, something like that. I don’t want to waste my time finding the comment and link it.

Surfing around PayPerPost, I encountered some sarcastic comments on bloggers using free hosting domains like Blogger. Not from PayPerPost itself, but fellow postie. I don’t want to call anyone names, so, I’ll politely refer them as ‘misinformed.’

Why am I bringing this up? My main blog is in Blogger. Of course it gets a little personal.

The reason is very clear isn’t it? Just take a look around, every nobody is starting their own website. Paid ones, mind you. Why? With the multitude of advices from blogging gurus, folks who has never blog one word in their life is committing themselves to paid hosts and paid links to start their blog. I won’t say all, but most of these folks are those who are waiting out the 90 days period to get their website approved and start paid posts. Or the very least, Adsense. What the heck, it’s worth it to them. They probably get back their full year hosting fee doing one month paid posts. Therefore, it’s good investment with guaranteed returns.

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