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Showing posts from 2007

The Directory is a HIT!

Hey guys, I'd like to thank the 36 of you who have joinined the new directory in under 36 hours. Definitely more than I expected! Hey, if you haven't joined yet? Whatcha waiting for? Read more about the directory below...

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the winners of Bestest Blog of the Year. The results are posted over my new blog, http://www.bestestblog.com/ . They'll soon also be taking over the area in the top left corner of the screen here. There were a few surprises, but mostly, I might've guessed a lot of the results before we even started! Way to go everyone!

Last day to vote...

Today is your last day to vote for the Best Blog of the Year contest. It's still a very tight race for many of the 105 blogs in the running! Be sure to check out BestestBlog.com (my new blog, not here). $50 to the winner, plus bragging rights (of course!) And lots of exposure for all the blogs in the top 10! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

I got a new blog...

...with a familiar name! Check it out here ! I just posted a contest update over there as well! And I promise to keep it updated on a daily basis. And I got a partner who is helping me with this blog. And...well just go check it out .

Contest Time!

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I am very proud to announce the commencement of voting for "Bestest Blog of the Year." . Not only is this a huge deal for anyone who has followed this site, but it will symbolically mark the transition from Bestest Blog to Blankest Blank ! The process is super simple. There are 105 blogs in the running. Go here and vote for them on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 is the worst, 5 is the best). If you want to make your vote count 3 times as much, be sure to register first. Voting will end 2 weeks from today, August 6th (which also happens to be my 2 year wedding anniversary) and winners will be announced on August 7th. The winner will receive (at least) a $50 cash prize! They will also have a link to their blog featured on the Blankest Blank Home Page for the next year (until the next blog of the year is decided). The overall top 10 blogs (including the winner) will have their link featured here at Bestest Blog (replacing the Blog of the Month and Featured Blog in the top le

Registration is a go!

Wow, that was surprising painless! You can now register for BlankestBlank.com. Currently there's not really any reason to other than to help me make sure it is working. But VERY SOON (we're talking hopefully today) the votes of registered users will count 3x as much as guests. So if you want your own site to win, registering is your best best! Let me know what you guys think! I keep adding new stuff all the time, and I love whatever feedback I can get!

The New Directory!

Well, I am very happy to announce that the project I've been toiling at for about a week seems to be in working order. May I present to you The Blankest Blank Blog Directory . This is a link exchange directory kinda like the one here but with a bunch of new features. Let me tell you about them. Automatically Add Your Link : This directory is completely automated, once you fill out the necessary form your link will appear IMMEDIATELY. No more waiting a week for me to add it by hand. Best Blog of the Day : After we finish the contest for "Bestest Blog of the Year," anyone who has joined (or joins afterwards) the directory will automatically be in the running for "Best Blog of the Day" from here on out. Instead of me and guest bloggers choosing them, winners will be chosen democratically by whoever has the best score! Winners of this award will have a special link on the Blankest Blank home page , a special icon next to their link in the directory, and the

Unproductive Weekend

Well, maybe I mis-titled. I had a great weekend, but didn't have much time to work on the site. In case there was any doubt, I have successfully made it so that registered users have their votes counted 3 times more than guests. That way the casual visitor can just wander through without the hassle of registering while the dedicated visitor can register and make a little more out of their voting. Just over the weekend I already got 15 new registrants which is pretty awesome! I hope to have the "Bestest Blog of the Year" contest (details a few posts down) done within the next week. I've set myself the deadline of August 1st, which I'll absolutely meet, but I hope to have it done well before then. In any case, no matter when it starts you'll have plenty of time to vote. Also, today I started a new category up: the most fun game . All these games are free and a lot of fun. WARNING: do not attempt to vote for games unless you have some free time on you

Registered Users

Well, today I finally found what I was looking for. A great PHP login script to use on my site. There's the link if anyone is interested. I knew something like this had to be out there, and I was right. It is a preprogrammed system where users can register, login, retrieve forgotten passwords, etc. If this site ever gets really big (cross your fingers), I may require people to register before they are allowed to nominate or vote at all. In the mean time though, I plan on enticing people to register by making registered users votes count 3x as much as a guest. In the long run, you'll also be able to make your vote count even more by consistently voting for winners, nominating eventual winners, and another contests and activities. I wanted to make sure I got this implemented before the big contest (see below) starts. That way if your blog is in the running, you can register, and make sure your vote counts extra!

Another top 10 update and big contest on the horizon

Ok, so I thought it'd be fun to take another look at the Top 10 in the voting for best blog over at my new site . The #1 blog at the last update got about 50 clicks in 3 days out of the deal, so let's see who's on top this time: 1. Flip This Body : 3.33 2. Blog About Your Blog : 3.17 3. Here Comes a Storm : 3.13 4. Doctor Anonymous : 3.11 5. Peggy, as she is : 3.08 6. Random Acts of Kindness : 3.05 7. Shoe Money : 3.04 8. Skittles' Place : 3.03 9. Critique My Blog : 3.02 10. It's a Blog Eat Blog World : 2.93 I'd have to agree with this list to the large part. I gave every blog on this list a vote of "5" myself. By the way, if you've already voted for best blog , know that you can vote again. I reorganized my database a bit, and as a result, I had to erase the database that kept track of who already voted. THE BIG CONTEST! Also, I mentioned a few posts ago that I'd be having a competition to find out who is the "Bestest

New category: Funniest Video

Well, this morning I opened up a 3rd category over at Blankest Blank . That is the category of funniest video . I've already nominated about 10 of my own recent favorites from StumbleUpon, so let the funniest video voting begin. If you have a favorite of your own, please feel free to nominate it , whether it's hosted on YouTube, or embedded in your blog, it doesn't matter, so long as at least YOU think it's funny! Enjoy!

Some early results

I just thought some of you might be interested in the early results of voting for the best blog . When voting ends, there will be an official results page, but I just thought you might be interested in seeing things so far. I'll just do the top 10 so far. 1. Boing Boing , score is 3.44 2. Blog About Your Blog , 3.40 3. Flip This Body , 3.29 4. Micro Image , 3.27 5. Here Comes a Storm , 3.24 6. Doctor Anonymous , 3.19 7. Critique My Blog , 3.14 8. Shoe Money , 3.07 9. Peggy, As She Is , 3.06 10. The Ordinary Adventures of Tomas , 2.95 So congrats to the early leaders, all of these are very good blogs if you are interested. This is the top 10 out of the 69 submissions I've received so far! Otherwise, things are coming along. I am still working on that directory, as well as a login script and other things. The voting pages are looking very nice and would love to hear some opinions on that. The Blankest Blank Forum has a couple of threads going and is picking up s

One submission per URL (and other changes)

Well, one of my regular readers R2K helped me out with a bug even if he didn't mean to. Well, R2K submitted his blog multiple times into the running for Best Blog . Although I'm sure he didn't mean to, this is an obvious no-no, but it needs to be prevented on my end. Once a blog is submitted its submitted, if it is submitted again (even if by a different user), there needs to be an error message that pops up stating such. This is a very easy fix, it's more tedious then anything, and first on my agenda today. The one vote per IP address concept came out very nicely. If you want to see a really nice addition to the site that I made, you'll have to vote through ALLLL of the funniest jokes or best blogs (currently about 20 and 60 of each respectively). After you check em all out, it makes it REALLLY easy to go back and give an extra look to the ones you liked the post. If I could get a couple of people to check out this feature and report back to me, it'd

What I'm working on today...

Blankest Blank dot com Well, I decided to keep the updates coming on this site because the number of submissions and votes seems to be growing as I do. If you are just checking in, be sure to read the previous couple posts before this one. All great blogs please move to the front of the line My first priority of the day is to rework the ordering system. Currently, when you log on to the page to vote for different categories, the order the sites are presented in is completely random. Thinking about this, I decided it wasn't completely fair. After all, shouldn't the ones that are voted to have a better score than the others receive more hits? But by the same token, I don't want the best to be first, the 2nd best to be 2nd, etc., because then you are biased as a voter, knowing what others thought of the site. So, I needed to find a way to give preference to the highly voted sites, but still keep it kinda random. So, the way I am working on accomplishing this is by gener

Another site update and a Happy Anniversary

Well, yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of "Bestest Blog." Yep, it was one year ago today that I featued my very first review . 2000 blogs, over a half million page views, over 100 reviews, and 366 days later this site has fizzled out. While this page was great in its hey-day, it's popularity exceeded my ability to keep up with it. Even with the help of some wonderful guest reviewers, adding over 100 links a week and other site maintenance called for 20+ hours of work a week, on top of my full time job. So, in my mind, I went back to the drawing board. This blog was doomed from the beginning. Its setup required me to do everything by hand. So, I did some research and figured out that PHP combined with MySQL was the optimal way to make a site like this more user-driven and automatic. Inspired by sites like StumbleUpon, I decided to take it just beyond finding great blogs to read every day, but to find cool images, videos, games, resources, and any other kind of

Introducing my awesome new site

UPDATE (6/28): I spent all day taking the code explained below for submitting and voting on the funniest jokes to make it super easy to add new categories whenever I want. So, I went ahead and added a second category best blogs . I already submitted my own blog, plus I submitted the top 10 premium blogs over to the right, just to get things started. You can submit your own and start voting whenever you want! Again, please leave a comment here if you find any bugs or have any comments. Thanks! -------------------------------------------------------- All right, so I've been a little secretive, a little bit on the hush hush as of late. But the good news is that I've been working hard on a new site! Your initial response is hopefully one of sorrow, for you are fearing what will happen to this site. Well, don't worry because my new site will INCORPORATE the ideas and awesomeness of this one, plus add so much more! The site is called BlankestBlank.com . Although i

Body Jewelry

FreshTrends.com is one of the internet's foremost body jewelry websites. When I first read the URL I thought it said "FleshTrends.com". With an L instead of an R. I think both names are great and would work great as a combo. My friend's brother is really into tattos and body jewelry and it looks really great on him. I wonder if he's ever been to FreshTrends.com...I'd be willing to bet that he has been. If you're like me and body jewelry is a little too much for you personally, but you still support the cause, perhaps a t-shirt would be a better purchase.

New idea?

I think that I had a genius new idea for a web site. Don't worry Bestest Blog fans, because the previous concept of Bestest Blog will be incorporated into an overarching bigger and better idea. I am still reading up on MySQL and PHP, but I am going to try and enlist the help of a few friends if they think the idea is good and get a prototype goin. Stay tuned!

Venetian Blinds

Well, as many of you know, my wife and I just moved into a new house. We had to makes a lot of changes...new carpets, new countertops, a new paint job. One thing that we mutually decided didn't need to be changed at all were the venetian blinds in all the bed rooms. They're so simple, yet still look very very nice. They keep out the sun or let it in, whatever you want. Plus, you can get them in just about every color under the rainbow. We're thinking about adding them to the rooms that didn't have them already (bathroom, kitchen, living room). This has been a sponsored post.

Automated Directory

So, yesterday I ordered on Amazon.com a book about PHP and MySQL. From what I can gather from some preliminary tutorials, this would be an excellent way to automate people adding links to the directory. It's possible that I may be even able to automate checking the reciprocal link for the exchange, as well as alphabetizing and sorting and what not. In any case, it is a great tool to learn for a budding website specialist like myself. I'd definitely like to make another run at making this site great, but I can't do as much work as I used to (checking and adding by hand 100+ links a week ended up being about 10 hours of work). So, we'll see how it goes...

Lead Management

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What is crm? Well, first off, crm stands for customer relationship management. It's the idea in business that if you want to increase your profits you need to maintain a very happy customer base. Companies likes AIMPromote offer crm software (customer relationship management software) to help ease the burden of pacifying a insatiable group of consumers. AIMPromote is also a leader in lead management (pun intended) and offers a very comprehensive lead management software package. A lead is a term referring to one company or individual referring (or leading) customers to another company. Say you own a mortgage company and you want to pay Joe Blogger $100 for every successful mortgage applicant he sends your way. Well, $100 is a lot of money. It's not enough to do lead tracking by giving new users an optional field to enter their referral. Most users will skip over this optional field. You need a more sophisticated software program to assist in mortgage lead management.

Thanks Blogger!

For wasting 4 weeks of my blogging time when I was supposed to be making my big comeback! The least you could've done was shut me down permanently so I don't feel torn between coming back to work on this and the new projects I've started. Oh well, I guess I've got some decisions to make. More on that later.

The Big Comeback?

May 1st was going to be the date of my big comeback. Well, that day came and went while I am sitting under review (edit: for what turned out to be 4 weeks) for seemingly no offense. I miss my blogging friends, but I've also been learning a lot about search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and PPC arbitrage. If I do come back, at least I'll have a lot of knowledge to share with everyone!

The Most On Topic PayPerPost Ever! [PPP]

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I don't think I've ever done a Pay Per Post that was as on topic as this one is. Scratch that, I know I haven't done one as much as this. This is the kind of site that if I had stumbled on to it outside of the world of Pay Per Post, I would've written about it anyway. Well, no harm in getting paid a few bucks to do something I would have anyway. The BloggersChoiceAwards.com site is web awards site where you can nominate your favorite blogs and vote for them. I nominated myself for the "best blog about blogging" and the "best blog of all time". What's that? You think it's a travesty that I'm in the "best blog of all time" category. Why don't you try googling it ? You can vote for me if you want (or not)! I'm not exactly sure when the voting ends, but hey, don't dawdle. Get your site up there today. I am pretty sure this site is another one in the long line of Pay Per Post blogging off shoot pages (i.e. Ro

Radio Show

Tonight at 9:30 I will be calling in to Dr. Blogstein's radio show. If you'd like to read all the details about it, you can check out Dr. B's post here . This is my first interview of this kind, and I'm kinda nervous. But Dr. B is hilarious and I hope I can play off that a little bit to make some jokes of my own. If you can't tune in live, I do think the show gets archived. I'll be sure to put up a link afterwards.

Musicians [PPP]

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Musicians Wanted at Music.com - Get Discovered ! This is a great idea actually. I was in a band in high school (a very pathetic one at that, except for my one talented friend). So, what you can do now is upload your recorded music for free. They'll sell it for you, and just like videos on YouTube can somehow manage to get thousands of hits really quickly, this could happen with your song.

To Do List

Like I said a few days ago, I'm compiling a to-do list of what I need to do with this site before the grand re-opening. I will add some things to this list as the days go on, and I'll cross them off as I finish them. 1. Update new link exchanges 2. Create banners for previous winners 3. Rework template a bit 4. Finish HTML coding 5. Get rid of un-updated blogs (>30 days since update) 6. Get rid of blogs who have gotten rid of me

Game of the Month [PPP]

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The following is a ExecutiveGamingMonthly.com advertisement... There's lots of gambling sites out there...mostly online casinos...they all claim to be better than the others. "We offer higher payouts!" "We offer a bonus deposit!" Well, this site can claim that they are better, because they're different. It is NOT an online casino. They sell gambling equipment to set up your own kinda private casino. Especially cool is their game of the month club . Tables, chips, slot machines, roulette tables...you name it. If I had to pick my favorite game for the game of the month club, I'd either choose their texas holdem or poker mania ...what can I say, I'm a sucker for poker. Then for a third month I'd go for the blackjack, another one of my favorites.

Making money while surfing!

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Below is a repost for a company called AGLOCO . The reason being that when I first did the post, they were in a pre-release stage. Now, their ViewBar (the genius of the whole program) is due out in the next two weeks. So, this is your last chance to get in on the ground level: This is not a sponsored post (it may be lengthy though, but I promise it is worthwhile). I am sharing this information because I think you'll find it very useful. Agloco is a new company destined to help web users earn money while surfing and is FREE!! to join. If I had read about this company BEFORE I made $1400 (and counting) off of PayPerPost, I might be a little more skeptical...but now, I know that anything is possible with these Web 2.0 companies. There are two ways to make money through Agloco . (1) Surf the web like you normally would. (2) Refer others to Agloco , and get paid for a percentage of the hours they surf. So, the natural question you should be asking yourself right now is where is

Borrowing [PPP]

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The following is a PayPerPost advertisement... Wow, what an ordeal trying to buy a house has been. It definitely been a learning process though. Too bad what I learned isn't at all applicable until the next time I buy a house again. Oh well, that's how it goes. It's extremely hard these days to get a loan. So, if you haven't been absolutely perfect with your credit history, do yourself a favor and read up on Loans and Borrowing Today before you try and do anything. The worst thing that can happen is you find your dream house and you can't get the financing for it. This site will help educate you so that nothing like that happens!

I'm comin back and I'm comin back BIG!

I decided that if I am gonna get this blog started again, I gotta give it my all. Before I can get it back into full swing there's a lot of little things I need to do first. So, what I am going to do is make a TO-DO list and post it as a sticky post. Then as I complete each task, I'll cross it out. I am aiming for a GRAND RE-OPENING of April 16th (I have the week of April 9-13 off, so that'll be perfect). I'll keep you guys updated as to what's going on, but with your response to my "How did today go?" post below, it looks like I'm primed for a big return. Keep your fingers crossed!

Ask Mr. Video [PPP]

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The following is a AskMrVideo.com advertisement... AskMrVideo.com is a cool new website. It's goal is to help you use the latest, greatest crazy of internet videos to help boost your blog, your website, your product, your WHATEVER! The coolest piece of technology in use over there is their transparent video ...it's a video where it looks like its popping right out of the screen. This site is new and is offering a special deal for a limited time for new members, check it out!

How did today go?

Today was the first trial run on the preliminary new system. It seemed like a pretty good day from my end, perhaps not 100% of what we used to have yet, but maybe about 75% of the way there. I would love to hear from you guys if you have some access to your statistics. What I'd want to know: (1) How many hits about you got today? (2) How many hits you've been averaging per day for the last 4-6 weeks? (3) How many hits you used to average previous to that per day? Anything you can let me know will help me move forward at this point. As I said, it definitely looks promising from my end, I'm just waiting to hear from you guys.

ETraffic Jams [PPP]

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The following is a ETrafficJams.com advertisement... ETrafficJams.com is a search engine optimization company . One of the best ways to drive people to your site are search engines like Google and Yahoo and MSN. But not everyone that owns a website has the time or the resources or the know-how to get their sites ranked well in these searches. That's where ETrafficJams.com comes in. After a small initial set up fee, you pay for the results they get. They calculate these by how many keywords they get your site into the top 10 search for on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. A nice pay for performance plan to get your site into the top on search engines. After that, a nice steady wave of free traffic should keep comin your way!

Coping with stress

I'm probably not the best person to have undertaken a project like this website. When I first started and everything was going smoothly, maybe then I was the guy for the job. But when rough times hit, the stress set in. A lot of people if they got an email saying "Why are my hits going down?" they'd shoot out a quick reply. Me, I'm an introvert and an email like that stresses me out and makes me want to avoid my email! Aggh! And my stress isn't just from this site. And not even all of it is bad stress. For example, my wife and I are trying to buy a house. Now, when we finally do it will be an amazing, awesome thing...but in the mean time, the process is very stressful. I need to get better at handling stress and at handling the problems associated with them as opposed to just trying to avoid them...not just with this website but with stress in general. I apologize to anyone who this has affected and hope you can understand that I am a real person wi

Windows Cleaner [PPP]

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The following is a MaceCraft.com advertisement... I'll admit I don't know much about cleaning a house. Granted, I know all the basics like doing the dishes. But let's say there's a big stain on the carpet...NOW WHAT? I have no idea...Some sort of stain remover I guess. Do we have any? Who knows?! What I am better at is cleaning the computer. Yeah, the computer needs cleaned too! Well, if you're not as knowledgable on the topic, consider jv16 PowerTools to be the stain remover of the computer world. It's also the dish detergent. In fact, it's like 20 tools in one, including a Software Uninstaller, Registry Cleaner, File Cleaner, History/MRU Cleaner etc. Sound complicated? Well, it is...I'm not gonna lie...but jv16 PowerTools makes it a lot easier to deal with.

Last Premium Blog Update

I've decided in light of things going on to remove my donate button. So, this will be the last update for a few donations I've received in the past few days. Stay tuned in a few minutes for a progress update. In the mean time, here they are: - Clickworthy Links , - Pastoral Ponderings , - Beta Blogger for Dummies

Just Moved [PPP]

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As many of you know, my wife and I have just moved. That's always fun. Gotta find a new grocery store, a new bank, a new post office, a new pizza joint...need I go on? Well, we used Google's local search tool to find a lot of these things in our new area. You type in what you want and your City, State and it brings up some choices and maps them out for you. This is probably the best form of small business advertising , just making sure your name and location is out there for the people who need it the most.

Good News?

I've come up with a strategy that should increase the Random Blog button hits again. I have no idea if this will get it back to where it used to, but it will certainly get it to more than where it's been. This process is in its preliminary stages, but I'll be sure to keep you posted on the progress!

Grand National [PPP]

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The following is a Grand-National.me.uk advertisement...scroll down for more posts... Grand National is England's biggest horse racing site. Have you heard of the Kentucky Derby? Of course you have! Well, the average person in England hasn't heard of our derby, but they've certainly heard of the Grand National . Well if that's the biggest horse race in England, then this site is the biggest horse racing site. They've got everything you need to know about the race: important dates, archives of winners, this year's competitors...everything short of accepting bets on the race! (I think that'd be illegal?!) So please check it out!

Mad at StumbleUpon

It's still a great site, don't get me wrong. An excellent way to use technology to feed your boredom. The problem is they stole my Gmail Address book and spam invited everyone on there to join StumbleUpon. It told me they were going to check for those in my address book and anyone who had an account, they'd add to my friend's list. My Gmail Address book isn't just people I specially added, it's basically everyone I've ever sent or received an email from. So, sorry for the spam if you were effected!

Finances for Women [PPP]

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The following is a ReproductiveAccessSolutions.com advertisement...scroll down for more posts... Do you know in many other countries around the world it is national law that a working women receive a full paid 6 week vacation and maternity health insurance ? Well, it's not like that here. If you're a working woman, there's a fairly good chance that your company will not do this for you. Sure, they can't fire you...they have to save your job for when you come back...but there's nothing that says they have to pay you in the mean time. That's where ReproductiveAccessSolutions.com comes in...offering help and solutions to these "moms in the middle" as they have termed it.

Stumble Upon

A friend of mine introduced me to Stumble Upon this week. I had heard of the site before, but never thought to give it a go. It works kinda like the Random Blog button, except it doesn't just cycle through blogs. Well, after a day or so of using it, I've found a bunch of cool sites with it. I'll do a more in depth post about it later, but if you're interested, try it out!

Big Web Links [PPP]

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The following is a BigWebLinks.com advertisement...scroll down for more posts... Big Web Links Directory reminds me a lot of the premium blog service that I offer here on my site. Who knows maybe they stole the idea from me! Unlike a ton of other directories out there that sort results by various factors, this site sorts them by contribution amount. The idea really worked for me here, so I'm sure it's working for them. Without a doubt the great sites end up near the top, because they're the ones willing to contribute the most. You don't make a big contribution if you have a crappy site. Just look at my Top 100 list, there are some of the best blogs around on there, especially near the top of the list. So kudos go out to Big Web Links Directory for a great idea and good luck!

Bestest Blog of the Day: 03/20/2007

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Echoes of Grace ...a review by Skittles It is with extreme pleasure that I present today's Bestest Blog Of The Day to Echoes of Grace .This blog is a mixture of everything. As Grace herself says, it's "Life at it's Best and it's Worst. Headaches and Heartaches, Laughter, Fears and Anguish. Life." It's obvious that Grace has been through some hard times, which is maybe why I was drawn to her blog in the first place. In the posts Wet Fur and Dream Of Peace you can catch a glimpse of some of that. In her post The Fall she very openly discusses going through depression after losing an amazing 130 pounds. This blog has a lot more to it though. See what she has to say in Five Reasons Why I Blog . It is a testament to loss and moving on, making new friendships and the common bonds that tie bloggers together. She goes with that theme again in Blog Blessings . All bloggers will get a chuckle out of But Honey I'm Blogging . I bet you can guess what that one&

Open Floodgate [PPP]

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The following is a PayPerPost advertisement...scroll down for more posts... The following is a sponsored post. Whether you are an artist, a composer, or a writer of short stories, you probably have the same objective in mind: you want to make sure that your product is received by the general community, and that you get the maximum amount of exposure possible among shrewd and discriminating consumers that are looking to purchase exactly what you have to offer. This can be a difficult thing to do, because there are few networks available to connect consumers with artists, and that is a sad thing. Fortunately, artists, writers, and composers can now broadcast their skills and talents like never before. Plus, consumers can now access the freshest, most creative, and most unique pieces available today. How you ask? By reading further in this post! I recently found a website called OpenFloodgate while looking for art to purchase for our new home. It was one of the best sites I’ve ev

Rerun Sunday: 03/18/2007

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A Normal Life ...by guest blogger Gale from "L'esprit de l'escalier" "Who is a wise man? He who learns of all men." --The Talmud The quote from the Talmud says almost everything you need to know to know about why bazza's blog deserves a Bestest Blog nod. I found the quote on Bazza's site, A Normal Life , which abounds in common wisdom, good humor, and heart. Bazza is a humanist, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. He's one of the most genteel souls I have met in cyberspace. He has well crafted opinions on a range of topics: history, art, music, architecture, classic cars, and football, to name a few. But it's not his style to shout anyone down. Bazza lifts up the people and places he profiles in his blog and elevates other bloggers up with gracious comments. I first met bazza when he surprised me by stopping in on my book blog. See, I had designed it as a best-books-for-women site, all pink and dishy-- a place where only men co

Diamonds [PPP]

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The following is a BrilliantDiamonds.com advertisement... When I bought my wife her engagement ring, it was quite a process...an education really. There is a lot to know about Diamonds . Luckily, I was able to find a retail jewelry store where they taught me what I needed to know. However, I don't think this is the norm. A lot of places want to get you in and get you to leave with empty pockets. Luckily BrilliantDiamonds.com is willing to teach you about the four C's (color, cut, clarity, and cost). And once you learn and are ready to make an informed Diamond purchase, they have an extensive inventory for you to peruse.

More about the weather

This snow kinda blind sided us here in Jersey. A drive that usually takes me about 30 minutes took me 140 minutes today (that's 2 hours and 20 minutes). The very last part of the drive I was doing about a tenth of a mile every minute...that's only 6 miles per hour! Ugh. Glad to be home, stupid snow!

Insurance Leads [PPP]

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The following is a PayPerPost advertisement...scroll down for more posts... With the priviledge and fun of owning a new house comes the responsibility and pain of having to get home insurance. Ick, I went through this last year with getting my first car and car insurance! Well, QuotesAuction.com is offering $200 worth of insurance leads for all of your insurance needs (home, car, health, or life). I'd like to at this point apologize for the unnecessary rhyme of the last sentence. Insurance leads and insurance needs. QuotesAuction.com is a fine site for this kind of stuff and I'm sure they're not paying me to be a poet! I gotta stick to the facts, like their easy on the eyes layout and navigation.

Movin on Up

We're checking out homes in Maryland tomorrow morning--at least that's the plan--although the weather right now isn't too conducive to driving. I'm hoping it'll warm up a little for tomorrow, so we can get a chance to visit all five properties that we are interested in, and hopefully put in an offer very soon.

Find a Better Savings Account [PPP]

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The following is a PayPerPost advertisement...scroll down for more posts... Good Afternoon, Today, I'd like to encourage everyone to Compare online banking, find a savings account or checking account and earn more interest today with SavingsAccounts.com . Money can be a constant source of worry and stress, and one of the best things you can do is make your money work for you with investments. Although a savings account doesn't necessarily have the highest interest rate among all investments, it IS one of the lowest risk investments, and your money is never tied up. Now, with savingsaccounts.com you can actually find a pretty impressive interest rate, so you can earn more money from the money you've already got! It's a win-win situation, so check it out today. Thank you for reading this sponsored post.