Back in late July I went through a little experiment. That is I started a little experiment and reported my intent here at Performancing. I launched a site for the sole purpose of protesting a situation that I felt compelled to protest. I then locked myself to my mouse for 180 days and didn't eat anything.

Actually, it didn't work quite like that. Back then it looked like

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I have very very very recently come into a large amount of money. I responded to an email from Sir Jimmey Von Singh, the great grandson of the Minister of Oil Revenues from Nigeria. Jimmey's great grandfather Bubbadoc Von Singh was held as a political prisoner and his fortune of some $132,000,000 was frozen by the Federal Action Task Force in the US upon the suspicion that the very elder Von Singh was the illegitimate father of Osama Bin Laden. This makes Osama, Jimmey's great uncle, I think.

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Next week, I'm flying out to Ontario, California for the 3 day convention called the Podcast and New Media Expo 2007 (fomerly called the Podcast and Portable Media Expo).

I wanted to check and see who else from Performancing might be attending the show as I'd like to meet up. The Podcast expo is a close nit group of people and its definitely one of those (free) conventions where you can learn a great deal about this niche of the industry and connect with people that are seriously involved in the medium.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been looking and experimenting more and with the concept that the blogosphere could leverage its power by focusing its voice. I have worked on political blogs and built a marketing company built entirely around the principle that bloggers can leverage their blogs and articles together to achieve a goal.

Most of these goals have been based around a monetization goal.

Today, I'm kicking off a project with a goal designed to achieve three specific goals.

Let me identify the Site's Title and domain first.

Title: Campaign to Sack Michael Vick

Domain: http://www.SackVick.net

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For quite some time I have been trying to find a way to win the blogging lottery. I am referring to that story that takes on a viral life of its own. You know the type, you probably receive one in your email inbox on a regular basis.

Its the story that gets passed around, linked around, emailed around and commented upon on CNN even. I'm not talking about reporting or blogging facts here.

I am talking about blogging or writing a piece of humor/humour or sarcasm that takes on a life of its own.

I don't want to create the article du jour for The Onion. I don't even really want the YouTube video that 6 million people view. I want that crazy article that you get in your email that you just have to show your friends, your coworkers, your parents, maybe even your kids - ok probably not your kids.

I have taken a few meager swings at this from time to time, like when I covered the Harry Potter Witch Trial about a year ago, when a 'reformed' Wiccan Witch saw the light and testified against Harry Potter in my city.

I've tried several crazy different diatribes. Even last night I kicked off a new effort focused on the Clinton Administration bombing of Al Qaeda in 1998 with a cruise missile carrying a warhead of weaponized exctasy and viagra, recently covered in the news as the Gay Bomb.

I don't expect this one to be 'the one' but I keep trying. I learn a little more each time, but this seems to be a much tougher objective to accomplish than your typical link building strategy or marketing campaign. I'm not trying to hit a line drive or just make it onto first base. I'm trying to hit a grand slam out of the park, when I normally just barely get on base.

Performancing has blogging Pro's from around the world. I'm curious if anyone here has ever pulled off one of these grand slams and what lessons you learned from the effort.

1. Do you have any tips to pass on?
2. Best Practices?
3. Mistakes to Avoid?

A couple months back, I was brining a few new domains online and pulling them out of the official parked domain area. I put the domain up on a server, installed WordPress, set up the DB, gave it a name and went through my setup checklist.

I did about a dozen of these, and two or three of them were a bit neglected after going live. I never wrote any content for them initially.

I was looking for writers, had some people lined up, life happened and they were delayed a couple months. When I went to check the now live blogs with no content except for the default Hello World! post, I was surprised to learn that the domains had gone from PR0 to PR3 through the update a month back.

Now PR3 isn't much to write home about, but I was struck, because some of the other domains, I had been working to plug away at with lots of content, were still languishing at PR0. They had the same template and design and more. One had content and one didn't.

I don't have any more insights into this other than questions, but I'm curious if anyone else has ever had their Hello World! domain go to PR3 like that?

I'm also curious if it makes more sense to send a domain live with a Hello World! blog and let it ferment into PR3 before you start writing on it. . . .

As a blogger with an eye open for content, I had an interesting experience this week. As a person, I almost got caught with some phishing bait. I was careful and maybe a little lucky, but I wanted to share the experience with other bloggers to help everyone be careful so that as a group we don't have to rely on luck.

Short History
A couple months back a new sponsored article company popped up on the web named Bloggerwave. They were located in Amsterdam, famous for its advanced trading systems, dikes, cafes, tulips and hackers, crackers and free love content sharing servers.

To date, many of the sponsored article companies have been based out of the US, even when they are owned or financed by people outside the US. This means that the owners of these other companies may not be subject to US law, but their officers and employees are (Like when you ask your chauffeur to speed to the airport to pick you up. If they get a ticket and you aren't in the car, its their fault or from the chauffeur's perspective, situs sucks!)

Many bloggers noticed that when Bloggerwave rolled out, they seemed to have copy/pasted some site design and site text from PayPerPost, one of the most successful sponsored article companies to date, even though they are not the oldest. Several of us carefully signed up to try out the new company.

By carefully, I mean we did not provide the personal information requested in the sign up form.

Long Story Short
As it turns out Bloggerwave ended up paying me for the only article I wrote there with a fraudulent bank account or credit card according to PayPal. PayPal does not provide 'seller protection' for services rendered as opposed to shipping a physical, tangible thing sold on Ebay, which owns PayPal.

So PayPal took the money paid to me and sent it back to the original bank account that it came from. I'm defrauded by $10 with no recourse (other than spreading the word and protecting other bloggers). I confirmed with PayPal on the phone that this could not be some innocent red tape mistake. They assured me that their investigators had found the transmission of the funds to be fraudulent.

Lessons Learned

1. Use a different user ID and password for each online account you set up with different services (for anything) That web 2.0 concept of the day, could be a phishing scam, to capture your preferred id and password and then use it elsewhere
2. If something doesn't smell right, don't sign up.
3. If you are willing to risk yourself, take practical precautions. Don't share real personal information, even if they ask for it.
4. Get in Touch and stay in touch with other people thinking about using the service too. The internet offers us a type of protection similar to that utilized by our 4 legged herd friends. If one person in the herd hears or witnesses something dangerous, they can rapidly put out the warning to the rest of the herd so that the herd can RUN AWAY!
5. If you are a blogger, be accurate, truthful and very very Vocal about your experience.
6. Get other bloggers to blog about the topic and link to original articles on the issue. This will build up pagerank for the problem and help other people from other herds or going solo, find the right information they need to avoid the problem company in the future.

If you would like to spread the word about this specific problem you can read more details Did Bloggerwave make a Payment with a Fraudulent Bank Account or Credit Card? or if you have been a victim of this company or other similar companies, you can see the short list of options that PayPal suggests to report these phishers / scammers to the US authorities. (I'm sure someone in the Performancing community probably has a great linkbait list of additional options that might help here too, please reply with your link and I'll support it heavily.)

For the last five days I've been blogging with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The results have been amazing.I don't need to use my hands when I type,I can dictate at about 130 words minute, and after five days in learning how to compose by speaking, or at least while I'm speaking (good example of a hesitant thought there)

my physical weariness from typing, has virtually been eliminate. don't get me wrong I'm a professional training in data entry and typing and know all the tricks to keep myself fresh and save when I type.I've never seen anything so that keeps me physically path up as much as not having use my hands physically when I type.

I'm putting in a shameless plug here, where I have a category of 4-5 reviews on Dragon NaturallySpeaking, they cover my journey so far with the software and how I've used it. I have tried the free tools that come with Microsoft XP, I have not tried the free version that comes with Vista. I can tell you that there is a night and day difference between Dragon NaturallySpeaking preferred nine and Microsoft XP. I won't say anymore here, because I said quite that my reviews already, but this is led to of a major change in the way that I blog. I'm still a little rough around the edges with it, but I'm improving every day. I'm hoping to get to the point where I can blog 180 words a minute with no errors by the end of the month. As I write this I'm blogging at 150 words a minute with five to six errors.

I will throw the disclaimer that if you check out any of my reviews, I do have an affiliate link to Dragon NaturallySpeaking on my own blog, I don't care if you go to the affiliate link or not. The company behind it is Nuance.personally I get a better deal in the software from the local MicroCenter., but I haven't made a dime from Nuance, and I doubt that I will.

I have been blogging full time almost for a year now. In the early days I made nothing from blogging and these days 60% of my income comes from blogging. I say this as the monetization of my blogging efforts enabled me to experience a bit of a writing break through. Putting money to my blogging efforts made my efforts feel valuable.

I always thought they were valuable, but with out money to show for my efforts, it didn't measure up in the real world.

I have read over and over again that people should blog about their passions or they will suffer from Blog fading. I do believe this is true almost. I often provide executive coaching consultations (paid and unpaid). I can talk about it with a passion, but the same thoughts don't flow through my fingers. As such, I had a blog fade on the subject despite my passion.

Similarly, I have a blog about the Distribution Business. I am not passionate about it, but I write about it weekly. Its a money earner. There is readily available news to write about it and I have expertise in the area. The money makes it possible to cover that one.

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I am hooked on the money!

I am passionate about what I'm doing. I'm blogging like there's no yesterday. I'm in a self perpetuating positive loop and I can't get enough. The money only makes it better!

Passion
I have not enjoyed doing anything as much as I enjoy what I am doing with my blogs. I'm expressing myself creatively. I'm tapping into my knowledge and education foundation. I'm researching and researching and researching and analyzing and writing and loving every minute of it.

I'm networking and building new concepts and new businesses and growing all of these things together.

I wake up, read, research, think, write, and repeat.

I'm living a healthy, happy and balanced life.

There's no Yesterday
I read a book by Umberto Eco a few years back. The Island of the day Before. Its a great but screwed up and crazy book, the type of book that only Umberto can write. In it the main character is searching for the Solomon Islands at a time in history when time changes were still understood in a very philosophical sense. As the character was basically crazy, he focuses a lot on his potential for time travel, just one day to yesterday. He's hoping to catch up with his nemesis.

I'm not looking back myself. I have no nemesis from yesterday to murder. I also know that information can live on for many many more tomorrows. As I write these words it is possible that someone may read them some day next year, next decade even in centuries to come. I may read them myself in centuries to come.

As an optimist with all the time in the world, I have no pressure to rush and I write like there's no yesterday (no demons to contend with) and no tomorrow with a time clock expiring. I just write and know that someday it will have value and be useful.

Creative Outlet
Everything I do these days either teaches me something new or builds something new. It is very difficult to think negative thoughts when everything you do is about growth and creation.

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I've been asking myself for the last couple of days, "Can I write too many articles?"

• In a month?
• In a week?
• In a day?

It strikes me that the answer for a month is no. However, when I focus more closely on a week, I start wondering maybe there's a limit.

I think 7 articles in a week is rather low. But what about seventy articles. That's averaging 10 articles per day.

I've received and seen several requests through the exchange and other areas where Blogs are shooting for 4-10 posts per day. So I started thinking about it, could I write 10 blog articles a day for a week? Could I write twenty?

I think 7 articles in a week is rather low. But what about seventy articles.

Would my readers complain? Would they increase or decrease? Would I get more subscriptions or drive people away in droves. In the last three days, I've written over 50 posts for my clients and another 20 posts for myself.

Taking it to the limit
Now, I like to test things and take them to a limit. I like to know where the boundaries are. I like to know where the optimal point is and where the min and max are. I've written 70 articles in three days. I'm not even really breaking a sweat.

I've been spending about 5-6 hours per day on dedicated blogging. I have other work to do in my consulting career including business development, web design, product testing, and trade show planning.

I'm also a father of three so I'm helping my son with his homework and doing the dishes and washing laundry (4 loads in the last three days. :)

I do type fast. On a good day I can push 80 words a minute. I also compose quickly. Ideas flow through my head and out my finger tips. These articles are mixed in quality. Some are very good, some are average and some are just marketing exercises in keyword analysis to be used in other research efforts on larger projects.

I'm not engaged in a scientific study of the topic, but would like to hear what everyone else thinks on the topic. My initial impressions are as follows:

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For those of you that have been trading posts, comments and more with me here in performancing, I just wanted to take a quick second and let you know that I've gone legit.

My real name Brett Bumeter is now here on Performancing. I'm no longer disguised as brettbum. Don't get me wrong I was never really hiding, by habit or default or something, I usually sign up for groups and many other things under brettbum unless forced to put the whole name or unless I need to put my full name for some official reason or other.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this as there are many great authorities on the net that go with an alias or alter ego.

So I'm here in my full name. My Bio has been here for sometime, so the name was always available, but I didn't want to confuse anyone.

There are many good reasons to go with an alias on the internet to protect your identity or get information in an anonymous fashion. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe I'm getting lazy, but the more I do the less I concern myself with it.

I still use my alter ego brettbum in part because it has almost as much net history as I do under my name Brett Bumeter (probably more even.)

So this is me, and I've even thrown up the picture to go along with the post as well. My agent in ComedySoapBox keeps telling me that I need to pay for a quality headshot. She keeps begging me to capitalize on the similarities in my features to Nicholas Cage or something.

However, that's not really me; I'm not much of a copy cat. I'll make my own way with my own name and my own mug!

I will be attending the Podcast and Portable media Expo.  If you would like to meet up with me at the event, arrangements can be made

I'm really looking forward to the expo and will be attending as many of the events as possible.

If you can't attend and have questions that you want answered, list them here in comments. I'll accumulate the answers and report back to the best of my ability.

If you would like these kept more private feel free to email me directly at brett _ bumeter at softduit dot com

Cheers!

For the last few months, I've worked on stripping out my Adsense ads from one of my blogs (Maven Mapper's Information self indulging link is in my profile :).

Tonight, I stripped out my adsense ads, and republished.

I noticed that I was getting a small box of Google Adsense ads in my sidebar despite the fact that I had no adsense script left in my template.

I did a lot of scrolling and flipping back and forth between code and design view in dreamweaver.

I finally identified the culprit.

Amazon was running Adsense on my Website!

Now I heard back in February that Amazon was going to launch a contextual advertising play of their own with lots of fan fare, but I haven't seen the results. They were hoping to reduce their own dependence on Adsense.

Tonight, once all my other adsense script was removed, suddenly my Amazon Search box that I had in my sidebar, mostly for personal quick Amazon book searches, was replaced with a google adsense ad.

Now you can bet this was not my adsense account number. However, it struck me that something about this didn't seem to be on the up and up.

It raised a number of thorny theoretical questions that I won't test, but will pose:

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1. What happens if I click on an adsense ad from Amazon on my website? My Adsense code is gone, will my site get shut down from adsense? (I don't think so, but how accurately does Google track clicking activity from my site)
2. How many other people see their Amazon Associate ads turn into Adsense ads?
3. How do I prevent competitive ads when it comes from Amazon's account?
4. Is it an anti trust activity for Google to allow Amazon to violate TOS and disallow it for all the small fish? (this concept comes to me everytime I see a big site doing something that I'm not allowed to do)
5. What is the limit to the adsense account sharing business model? (ergo there are a number of schemes cropping up where sites offer you to put your adsense account number in somewhere and they will rotate ads in under your account on their site. I've never tried one of these programs out of fear that I couldn't control the site and my account would get shut down based on something that happened there out of my control. However this is essentially what Amazon is doing, putting their adsense on my site and trusting that I won't run porn or something there that would violate TOS.)
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First, I don't apologize for not dumbing down the acronym. Kiss is spelled with two s's and so was the original acronym. Keeping the acronym slightly funny and getting someone's gall up just a bit helps them remember the acronym.

I have taken some steps in slightly new professional blogging directions over the last couple weeks. I am still following the exchange and looking for additional opportunities, however, I made it a point to go back to my current consulting customers and I've managed to build out my relationship with them by building or building out some very simple blogs for them.

Here's the simple formula:

1. Setup a cheap blog. I use blogger, it worked for me as a newbie blogger and it can work for a company as well establishing a brand new blogging presence. No money required and the effort required is easy. Let your customers learn to crawl and walk before they run and they will understand what they are getting involved in better later.

2. Review with your customer their recent milestones and achievements and then write simple press release like articles. Post them and back date them in the blog. This helps to catalog the news and accomplishments that the company may have neglected to publish on the web in the past. (If they already had a news section, you can pass this step, but if they are new to the web - like my customers, then this is a great tool to give them some examples and get them thinking about what constitutes useful professional posts.)

3. Setup their templates for them, but keep the template simple at the beginning. Again let them get used to things and grow them into the more advanced template settings. Otherwise the project can grow to quickly out of control and before you know it your customer will be out of budget without any content or readers to show for it.

4. Take full advantage of feeds. Take their blog and push it through a feed. I use feedburner. I then push the feedburner feeds to the news section of my customers website (wherever that might be) and now they have an instant updating news section straight from their blog.

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