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Showing posts with label social networking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networking. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

As you shop, browse and scour the web, have you ever wondered who is profiling your browsing habits?

Once, when searching for a yoga mat and book on Amazon, I became alarmed when I started to see ads appearing on blogs featuring "yoga mats" and "yoga books".  Tick one for Amazon, they profile your shopping habits and then try to tailor suggestions based on your previous choices.  Some of us find this useful but others will be thinking "what else are they finding out about me?"

Most of us know that Facebook profiles its users.  Recently, it has come to light that Facebook is profiling you even when you are logged out of the Facebook homepage.  It seems people need to start enabling "Private Browsing" in Firefox, deleting cookies and blocking certain third party applications in Twitter, Facebook and every other social network or shopping site.

But there may actually be a rather ingenious way to ferret these profilers out.

You could try browsing for things you would never normally search for.

As an experiment, this morning I visited the KKK website, looked up Hitler and S.S. Halloween costumes, checked out white power memorabilia and Nazi uniform collectibles.

Why, you may ask? Have I gone all white supremacist / racist / nuts?

No, I was just researching an article for "Inappropriate and Bad Halloween Costumes" for one of my other blogs, "Halloween Holidays".

However, now that I have surfed for these outrageous topics, it will be glaringly obvious if someone has used this information to "profile" my browsing habits.

If I start seeing ads for "Grand Dragon Costumes" or "SS Uniforms" it will be clear that this information has been recorded and used for advertising purposes.

The emergence of Google's new +1 network has raised some important questions relating to privacy.  If you have a profile in a social network (Google +1), and then use a search engine (Google) to browse, it is possible that this information will be used in some way to market to you in the future.  Worse still, your profile can be linked to certain interests, which may make some a little nervous for those who have done research on offensive and inappropriate topics.





Tuesday, May 05, 2009

I don't know...

Is Twitter good for your blog? I have gained 300 Twitter followers in the last 2 or 3 days - I wonder what that actually means in real terms? What does anything mean anymore? I get around 250-300 emails a day. By the time I've finished deleting and actioning them, I don't have time to post anything!!

And does this make me any money? Well, yes. But that's not the point. I don't have TIME anymore. And that is the thing that is most precious. Especially to a blogger like myself.

I have become a little disillusioned with the whole Twitter/Digg/whatever culture of late. I can't say that I've learned much from other Twitterers so far. However I know this is a growing thing. The news and current affairs programs keep plugging their Twitter pages so perhaps somebody knows something...

Forgive me if I can't see where this is all going as yet. I don't want to be the person who laughed at the formative ideas of the first aeroplane or computer either. It's just that I get a lot of "make money quick I'll show you how." direct messages in Twitter and I'm getting a little tired of them. The most interesting conversation (yes, as in an actual back-and-forth conversation) is completely unprintable. It involved spontaneous outbursts of rude words. I suppose it's kind of equivalent to writing on the toilet door, except it's a bit quicker.

I could possibly hit 1000 Twitter followers by the weekend. But what does that mean? Have I achieved something? What can I do now that I couldn't do last week?

Sometimes I feel like primordial ooze in a council meeting of intelligent alien life forms.

Alien #1: You just whack the doohicky, splat the cosnarp and bang! You're in and you can snark!

Alien #2: That's so easy, I thought you had to grapsact the fookart first.

Alien #3: No dummy, that was in version 2.0 - we've fixed that now.

Primordial Ooze: Shclllurrrp!!!!



Yep, that's my understanding of quite a few things that are happening on the internet at the moment. And I grew up programming computers!!

Sometimes I just want to yell "Just spell it out in plain English!!! I'm sure I can target keywords within a single bound, break the light barrier and create niche markets. I just don't know why the f@%k I'm doing this when I could be sitting out in the sun reading a book!!!

Slowly I will get to understand the technobabble and when I get a spare ten seconds I will actually watch the hundreds of videos and PDFs I have downloaded "to watch later".

But I've realised something...

There is no later!!!!

Decide what you want to do and forget the rest. Life is too short.




Monday, April 06, 2009









I recently got my first ad offer for Twittad - the new Twitter advertising platform. It will be interesting to see how it goes (and of course I'm looking forward to getting paid!)

Twittad works like this:

  • Twitter member signs up for Twittad
  • Twittad advertisers place requests to advertise on member's Twitter page
  • Twitter member accepts (or declines) ad
  • Twitter member gets paid and the end of the advertising run (eg. 7 days, 14 days etc.)
The ad will replace your Twitter background for the duration of the advertising run. Here is a demonstration using my Twitter page as an example:

Before Twittad:



















During Twittad advertising period:



















After the advertising period your Twitter page reverts to its normal appearance. I have no idea how this Twittad thing is going to perform for both Twitter users and advertisers - what do you think?

If you are interested you can sign up here to join Twittad.



Wednesday, April 01, 2009

I have been overwhelmed lately with social networking. I Twitter until my hands fall off, Entrecard until I go cross-eyed and scour the halls of BlogCatalog like a hungry wolf...

I have discovered a new concept that I would not have thought about before - a social networking site called acobay based on common interests and "stuff".

It's so simple, dang it! I actually wish I had thought of it first. So I had to join up and see what it was all about.

























The concept is actually pretty simple - you connect with people with whom you share interests or stuff - for example, let's say you are an Apple Mac enthusiast. You go to Computers-Apple and check out all the different Macs. You can either pick the one that you own, thus connecting you with other users of the same model, or you can add it to your wish list and discuss it with people who already own this model.

As soon as I joined, loaded up my avatar and set my profile (it's "LJP" by the way) - and went straight to my favourite category - Automobiles. I will be buying a car very soon but I am still shopping around for the right model. I found what is in my opinion to be the best car in the world - a Chevrolet Impala.

Yes, I did get the idea from watching too many episodes of "Supernatural" but it is the coolest car in the world. So I added it to my wish list:
















I am a big believer in the law of attraction. Wish lists and watch lists and things of this nature tend to energise the decision that you will own this object. I can see myself spending a lot of time on this site...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I've been having some more fun creating a bunch of free Twitter backgrounds for you to use.

Feel free to share, etc.

- Click on theme and open in new window
- Save to desktop (or wherever you like!)
- Go to Twitter account
- Choose "Settings"
- Choose "Design" tab
- Upload your image from your computer
- Save!



Green Theme
















Music Theme


















Bookish Theme


















Tiger Theme



















Have fun!

Related:

How To Make Money Tweeting


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How to make money with Twitter - turn your tweets into profits. Free guide.


More Twitter Backgrounds



Monday, March 16, 2009









Strange things are afoot at the Circle K...

There are some changes going on at Entrecard, least of which is the "above the fold" rule.

The rule was proposed that if your Entrecard widget does not appear above the fold (that is, without needing to scroll down at all), your account would then be in violation.

Thankfully, the rule has been amended to the "one page scroll" rule.  This means that you are in compliance if your Entrecard widget appears after one page scroll.  I'm not sure what effect the "above the fold" line would have created had they not amended it to a more sensible criterion.

I have a feeling some will be leaving after the recent changes are implemented.  I'm not sure that I am absolutely comfortable with a "dob in a fellow blogger" Gestapo-type system of reward. Get someone reported and get credits!  Get someone deleted and get thousands of credits!!  It's not good mojo, good karma or good Feng Shui for that matter, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The system will be converting to a real cash economy - I will be interested to see how this turns out.  You basically exchange your credits for cash and begin to sell ads on your widget. As I understand it, Entrecard will then pay you to buy your credits back.  You can also sell credits through your dashboard.  Hmm.  Clear as mud.   I would like to learn more and see how this will actually work.

It will be interesting to find out what others think about these changes at Entrecard.








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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I recently joined Twitter and realised my background needed work. I designed my own and now I've been having some fun creating a bunch of free Twitter backgrounds for you to use.

Feel free to share, etc.

- Click on theme and open in new window
- Save to desktop (or wherever you like!)
- Go to Twitter account
- Choose "Settings"
- Choose "Design" tab
- Upload your image from your computer
- Save!

2008 Beijing Olympics Theme



Golf Twitter Theme



A great way to design your own Twitter page is to start with free textures and go from there. Textures provided by:

http://www.imageafter.com/
http://www.cgtextures.com

Here are a couple to get you started:


Circuit Twitter Theme:



Smash Twitter Theme:





Have fun!

Related:



Follow me on Twitter:


technorati tags:

How to make money with Twitter - turn your tweets into profits. Free guide.


More Twitter Backgrounds