The global blogging phenomenon suggests that we should uncover, discover and welcome different worlds to our own. This is a great way of finding out new things about people and places you never knew existed. What makes us unique? How do we see the world? What makes us who we are?

To kick this off, this site will be hosting:

A Gonzo World Carnival !

This is your chance to "Share Your World". Your country...your home...your state...your unique world and how you define it.

The Carnival will be published on the 19th.

Submissions close on the 16th so please get your posts in early!


The Ground Rules:

* Submit one post, past or present that fits the theme of "Share Your World" ...your home, your town, your state, your country etc. One entry per blog. The topic is quite broad in terms of options. As long as the post relates to your world.

* Only English language posts will be accepted

* Send your submissions to violetfrog7@yahoo.com.au

* Each post must include:
-Your name as you want it to appear in the post
-The title of your blog
-Your blog URL
-The Name of the Post
-The URL of the post

Entry deadline 11:59pm on March 16th, 2007.

Show your Gonzo Love by putting up a A Gonzo World Carnival! banner on your site.


Spread the word and get your posts in!!...

Special thanks to Fear & Loathing - The Gonzo Papers and For Your Success.

Technorati Tags:
blog+carnival, gonzo+world+carnival, call+for+posts

Some people mentioned that they enjoyed the drawings on my blog so I thought I'd gather up my best efforts and compile them in one place. So, without further ado, here they are:

My Favourite MP3 Player (Caveman Pic)
Nightmare on Web Street (HTML Nerd Nightmare)
Maseur Sandals - Aaahhhhhh!!! (Stressed Before & After)
Jamie Oliver is a Genius? (Dumb Chef)
How to Cut Your Washing Up Time In Half (Stressed Dishwasher)
Hairy Adventures (Half Shaven Look)
Don't Drink and HTML (HIC!)

Hope you enjoy them. Feel free to comment!

Technorati Tags:
drawings, compilation, list, pencil, pen, artwork

Kelly has been kind enough to host $$$ The Bestest Blog Finance Carnival $$$ on her blog "A Girl Worth Saving".

I have my own entry in the Carnival "FOAD: Don't Buy Britney's Hair on Ebay" in which I rant about financial injustices in the world, amongst other things. I am thoroughly enjoying all the posts in the blog carnival - make sure you check it out....

Technorati Tags:
blog carnival, finance, bestest blog, a girl worth saving,

The Zlist was started at Viral Garden. It is a simple way to get links from other bloggers and also improve technorati ratings.

What do you have to do to join? Just copy the links below to a new post, making sure you add to the list the last site you got the Zlist from (that would be me!! SAVESAVESAVE). Then sit back and relax as people copy the list from your blog and pass it on. And on. And on. And on....

JCM's blog & updates
the 15,000-dollar mission
DoshDosh
612 to apocalypse
JCM´s RPG art
Connected Internet
Blog-Op
Can I Make Big Money Online
Blogtrepreneur
Flee the Cube
Blogging to Fame
Million Dollar Experiment heads Down Under
Kumiko's Cash Quest
Calico Monkey
Internet Bazaar
JCM´s blog
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes!
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
Two Hat Marketing
darrenbarefoot.com
The Emerging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew's Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
NewsPaperGrl
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett's Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly

Technorati Tags:
Z-list, Viral Garden, Technorati, Rating

I have been messing with my template again. It's making me cross-eyed. I think I have to compulsively change my blog template for some reason, the way some people always have to change the colour of their hair. Now I have migrated to the new Blogger (not BETA anymore), I have found it's even harder to get blog templates. I have found some good sites for new Blogger templates but I think there are already too many of those "red lipped woman" blogs floating around and I don't want to just be another identical one. Anyway, the woman looks like she is dribbling. Am I the only person who has noticed this? If I could only be bothered designing my own blog templates...it's a thought...
Actually, writing this has made my mind up. I will just use this template and mess with it when I feel like it. I suppose it's better to have a design that is unique - even if some other blogs make you go "Wow! How the $%&$ did they do that?"

And even though I have lost a whopping 9 "Battle of the Blogs Challenges" and won exactly zero, I am starting to wonder about whether anyone reads the posts when they vote or whether my blog just sucks! I mean, do people go "I don't like the colour scheme" and vote for the other one? Or do they go "Oooo nice pictures" and forget to read the words? Or am I a bitter and twisted person damaged beyond repair by consecutive defeats? Only time will tell. Incidentally, I have just thrown down the gauntlet again (albeit foolishly) on the Battle of the Blogs on Blog Explosion.

This is not a desperate plea for you to vote for me, by the way.
YES IT IS! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD VOTE FOR ME AND NOT THE OTHER PERSON. ESPECIALLY THAT GUY WHO TAKES PHOTOS OF NEW YORK! HE DOESN'T NEED THE VOTES! HE'S RANKED #1! I'M RANKED #3442! THROW ME A FRICKEN' BONE HERE!!! I'M DYING!!!
*pant* *pant*
Case dismissed.
*THUMP*

Technorati Tags:
blog template, new blogger, blog explosion, battle

The following is a Pay Per Post advertisement....
I love widgets. Ever since I first tried out a weather widget I have been going widget mad. Before I went widget mad I didn't even know what a widget was. Heck, a year ago I didn't even know what a blog was!!! (strange but true) But I digress.
Box.net Widget is a flash player that you can use to stream files. You choose which files to upload from your hard drive (up to 1GB) - these can include podcasts, photographs, videos, whatever you like. I tried it out myself and it's pretty easy to use - took me all of 2 seconds to figure it out!

Happy Valentine's Day to all (for the 14th)!! I submitted my Great Expectations post for the Valentine's Day blog carnival. For some reason it hasn't made it into the carnival, but obviously you can read it here. I am not one to hold a grudge (*sniff* *sniff*) so here it is - the Bestest Blog Valentine's Day Carnival hosted by Cathy:



I really enjoy Blog Carnivals. In this Valentine's Day Carnival There are a lot of funny and touching stories - I don't know about anyone else but I can spend all day reading these posts. So, spread love to the world and read all about luuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrvvvvvvvvvvvvvve.

xxoxoxoxo

This policy is valid from 02 May 2007


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact LJP - Violetfrog7@yahoo.com.au.


This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.


To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

I have added Link Referral in a category all on its own. Yes, it is a link exchange program - and a very effective one at that. The best feature are the reviews - you can review others for credit and you will receive reviews from other members. It is a great way to keep on top of your site - what works, what doesn't work.

I have taken a lot from advice from these reviews and it has helped to improve my site. Special thanks to the person who told me the text in my sidebars was microscopic.

Rating: Highly Recommended 9/10

I have been trying out the following traffic exchange sites for around 4-6 months:

BlogExplosion
BlogMad
BlogSoldiers
ClickThru
MyTrafficBlast
Traffic Swarm

The Winners and Losers:

Blog Soldiers 9/10

And the winner is...Blog Soldiers.
It is the easiest to use and the constant improvements are impressive.
The ratio used to be for every 2 blogs you visit, 1 will visit yours (surf ratio 0.5).
Now it has increased so for every blog you visit, your surf ratio is 0.75
My favourite thing about Blog Soldiers is the ease of use. And the pretty pictures you are required to click on to earn credits.


Blog Mad 8.5/10

Very close second is Blog Mad. The ratio is actually better than Blog Soldiers - 1:1
You can't get much better than that!! I just don't like the clicky thing as much. Isn't that silly? Well, no, not if you are sitting there like a zombie for hours on end surfing sites for credit!


Blog Explosion 8/10

Love Blog Explosion. I have got a lot of traffic from Blog Explosion, it's just not as intuitive to use as Blog Mad and Blog Soldiers. I had a bit of trouble working out how to get credits, the banner upload was ridiculous (it just didn't work. About 7 times - probably not their fault though!!)
Overall, Blog Explosion is definitely worth it. For a small amount of time surfing you seem to get quite a lot of traffic.


Traffic Swarm 7/10

Traffic Swarm is good too.
The main drawback for me is that this is not a "blog only" traffic site. So you get the inevitable "Click here we can make you rich ask me how and more importantly ask me why I'm here jumping up and down talking to you instead of sailing off in that yacht behind me in the picture..."
Apart from the get rich quick stuff, the traffic thing is good.


My Traffic Blast 4/10

Okay, somebody enlighten me here. I have no idea what to do with this one. It confuses the heck out of me. I managed to navigate through the "click here" stuff to the members area, only to be confronted by a dog's breakfast of information. I have no idea what this site is doing for me (if anything). I have no idea how to earn credits, except for buying them.
However I did check my stats and I got a heap of people from My Traffic Blast. So it must be doing something. I just don't know what.


Click Thru 2/10

Hmmm. This was an easy decision for me, might not be for others. I got a large amount of traffic from Click Thru. The reason why I have rated it so poorly? The "tasks" section made me encounter a horrible sight that took days to get out of my system. I still get a cold chill thinking about it. Click Thru's policy allows illegal and offensive material. This was both. I don't even know if the person in the picture was still alive. All I know is I won't forget it. I have since deleted my account and taken the links off my site.

There is also an unknown quantity lurking in the background. It's called ExLinks.

Just another traffic program? Nobody knows. But everybody who's anybody seems to want to sign up. A good start for a traffic program, I think.

The nice people at AdBrite sent me this (click to enlarge):



I Love them again. Giving it another go. They are much nicer than their competitors.

xxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Technorati Tags: adbrite ad+brite love forgiveness

Oy Veh again.

I have taken all the AdBrite ads off my site. Every time I opened my blog I saw this massive box with "Your Ad Here" glaring back at me.

It told me two things:

1. My site looks unattractive with the massive ad text sticking out
2. Nobody can click on the ads because they aren't there yet

point 2. led me to point 3. I'm not getting paid anything from AdBrite.

Not only that, but due to time limits my previous earnings were disappearing day by day like a wheat field in a locust plague.

Still, AdBrite is the best ad thingy I've used so far. My earnings were 15c from Commission Junction, $2.20 from AdBrite (rapidly decreasing as we speak), and an incredible 1c from Google AdSense (Oops!! listens at door for sound of approaching secret service dudes!)

It's strange, AdBrite used to have ads appear after about 24 hours and then you would always have a full block of ads. But now they have skyscrapers etc. (much like AdSense) but they have rarely been filled with anything except for "YOUR AD HERE" in huge garish letters. I haven't had an ad click since late October 2006.

I'm still researching which are the best ads to use. So far I have found that "click" ads are preferable rather than "click and sign up then buy something then I get paid" ads.

I will put the ads back if I can find out what the problem is. If not, I will continue to search for ads that result in a cheque rather than high blood pressure.

Technorati Tags: adbrite ad+brite google adsense no+ads commission+junction affiliate+ads

I have been visiting the website of Yaro Starak for some time now, gaining tips and valuable information on becoming a successful blogger. I consider myself a successful blogger but Yaro makes over $5000 USD per month from his blog, which is where many bloggers aspire to be right now.

Yaro has just launched a brand new mentoring program for people who want to earn a full time income from blogging part time.

When you consider the number of programs that don't work, use up valuable time and cause frustration, it makes sense to get good advice from someone who has not only been there before, but someone who continues to grow and thrive in the blogging world.

The program is less than $100 a month to become a member and you get direct access to your own blog mentor, plus all kinds of audios, videos and e-lessons to help you make money from your own blog.

You can read more about the program here:

Blog Mastermind Coaching

It''s called Blog Mastermind and I expect there will be a lot of people interested in the program because so many people like the idea of making money from blogs.

Click here to join the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program

You can find out more about blog monetization by downloading this free ebook:

Click here to download the Blog Profits Blueprint




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The SEO Book

A lot of people underestimate the importance of SEO when it comes to promoting your blog. SEO has become more complicated in recent times and as a lot of bloggers know, page rank and alexa traffic are king.

SEO training programs are crucial if you want to make your blog seriously competitive in today's blogging world. This is the difference between bloggers who get the wide readership and those who don't. Aaron Wall's SEO Book is a great way to get serious web visibility.

Here are some free SEO Tools for optimizing your blog:

SEO Tools

Find out more about the training program here:

Learn Search Engine Optimization Today

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I have noticed that a lot of people create a blog or a website but don't know where to go from there. I struggled with SEO issues and monetizing quandaries for a long time when what I should have been doing was building more content and focusing on my readers. Sound familiar?

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• How can I make an income from my website?
  



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I learned about this site from Allan Gardyne - a successful affiliate marketer since 1998. Allan is amongst many people who use Site Build It (SBI) for their websites with much success.

The site offers a no-obligation test drive of the program which is the best way to see if Site Build It is right for you.

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How does an affiliate program work?

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