The Freedom Net

So what’s the real deal with Pay-Per-Post? It’s interesting to peek behind the scenes. What do we really know about the founder, Ted Murphy? One of the other PPP bloggers has pointed out that quite a few of the PPP current advertisers are also customers of MindComet, another venture of Murphy’s. So what incentive is he offering these advertisers in order to pump money into this venture? A recent post on the actual PPP blog said they were getting ready to announce some VC funding … what’s up with that? The business model, as I understand it, should be self-sustaining, not requiring any outside funding. But, alas, perhaps Ted is skimming money off the top to build a new home in Malibu?

I think that when all the smoke and mirrors clear, we will probably find that Ted has contracted with Google, the internet advertising giant. I mean, who else could really be behind yet another method of online advertising: ads on blogs?

What do you think?

I picked up an old (and I mean circa 1985 old) copy of the book “What Color is Your Parachute?”.  For those who have never heard of it, it is a book that covers job hunting, career changing, and decisions relating to the two.  One of the sections of the book covers finding out what you WANT to do.  So many of us wander through life being sold a bill of goods on what we should do, what we can be paid to do, and we believe it.  We never wander outside of the box long enough to realize that there is an entire world of opportunity outside of the box.

Success to me means truly find what you WANT to do.  We went to the open house at our son’s primary school last night.  The teacher briefed the parents on what the daily schedule is, what homework is like, her expectations, her goals, and her suggestions for us to help him on his path of learning.  One thing that I gained from her, however, that most people in the room probably missed:  I realized that she is truly passionate about teaching.  I picked up on her authentic enthusiasm, excitement, and enjoyment for what she is doing for a living.  She is one in a million, for it isn’t every day that you meet someone who not only enjoys what they do for a living, but is actually the passion of their life.  I truly believe that if she was financially independent, she would still teach … for free.

That, ultimately, is where I want to be.  So, I’m reading this chapter in the book … and I will share any insights I gain along the way with you.  Ultimately, only YOU can answer the question for yourself:  what do YOU want to do?

If you’ve ever tried to setup and run your own Google Adwords campaign, then you know how frustrating it can be. Start out with a small budget and a small keyword list, and you will go no where, fast. If you go too far overboard, however, you can find yourself busted with no marketing funds left, and no results! That’s where paid search management comes in. Apogee Search offers this feature.
Ultimately, I personally prefer to go for free search listings and achieve a high-ranking position using peripheral keywords and good SEO techniques. Perhaps I will write another article on that. I did a post earlier on how I kicked butt on Yahoo! and MSN, and why Google really doesn’t matter. Check it out here. I figure it like this: if I’m going to pay money for a service to help me get customers, I’m going to pay for something I can learn - techniques that I can master to help me in search engine rankings - rather than having someone manage a paid advertising campaign.

Well, I lost another employee today.  Well, technically it happens next week, as Friday will be his last day.  Although his attitude has been poor for some time, it’s basically a money issue.  He’ll get a $1.50 raise just by going a few more miles down the road.  Meanwhile, in an attempt to be benevolent, our new taskmasters have ante’d up and are putting down a smooth 4% across the board for all employees with some tenure.

Unfortunately, this still won’t bring some of the employees up to speed with what we are currently starting our newbies out with.  Talk about managing under duress … it’s tough to be a manager when one hand is tied behind your back.

Well, football season is upon us. It’s the time of year when football fans come out of the woodwork like you wouldn’t believe. As a Pay-Per-Post blogger, I’ve been presented with a great opportunity, to review a full-blown football calendar free of charge from Doc’s Sports. The calendar is a full-color, 120-page booklet with the complete schedules for college and professional football this season. In addition, it has some statistics like last year’s match-ups and results. This was quite impressive. As a football fan, I found it very interesting and a wealth of information.

Then, I began to read the articles. Slowly (it takes a while for me sometimes), I realized that this was no ordinary sports ‘calendar’. I noticed advertisements with scantily clad females … and for places online to do sports gambling! Then it dawned on me why the calendar has a place for all of the scores .. and also list the ‘odds’, as it were, for each team to take their division and league championships!

Well, as my ‘luck’ would have it, this PPP opportunity is a neutral one, which means I am free to express my review as positive or negative and still be paid! (Chalk one up for PPP, PPP - 1, skeptics - 0) So this is it. This post is my review.

I guess the bottom line is that if you like football alot, you might find some useful facts that you didn’t know and information from last season. Other than that, you will only find temptation to enter into gambling - an addiction that causes thousands each year to lose homes, hope, and families. Sorry, I can’t give this a positive review … poor marketing, sneaky tactics, and catering to ‘football fans’. Just because I am a football fan doesn’t mean that I am a fan of gambling.
PS - Oh yeah, and BTW, I am one of those conservative religious zealots who despises the big ‘G’ as almost as bad as one of the seven deadly sins, and NO, I doubt that gambling is going mainstream anytime soon.

EDITED 9/12/06 - Just for the record, PPP did not approve this post, since my blog is not specifically sports related. I don’t remember that being one of the initial qualifications, but that’s ok. I decided to go ahead and leave the post up, as pertinent and vital info for anyone checking out Doc’s stuff … but I did take the liberty to remove the gratuitous link to their site. After all, this is my blog, and on here, I’m the one who makes the calls.

Have you ever felt like the guy in the old Dunkin’ Donuts commercials? That’s the way we feel sometimes as managers … first ones in, last ones out (incidentally, that was also the motto when I was in the Signal Corps, US Army). Check out this old commercial and see if you can feel my pain:

Time To Make The Donuts

Somewhere along the lines it has been a given supposition that there will be a revolution, and it may or may not be televised. OK, so now there is some talk that there is actually a consumer generated advertising revolution taking place as I write this post! So, is the revolution on right now? (more…)

OK, this is great.  My little girl (almost  4 years old) has decided to tackle the art of drawing people.  Of course, when drawing new people, she has to draw people she knows, right?  Well, one of those people is daddy (that’s me) of course!  So how is she doing?  I’ll le you be the judge.  I’m the one with the big head with no hair. (more…)

OK, the title of this post is a bit of a fantasy (wishful thinking). I guess I’m just thinking about what I would hire someone else to do, if I had disposable income to do so. While there are many things that I can think of, I guess it comes down to freedom of my time. Bottom line is this: if I could pay someone to do something for me, it would be GO TO WORK!!! Take my place on the job … just for a day! That would be awesome.

In the meantime, I guess I will just continue to Get Paid For Blogging.

Well, I’ve done it again.  I just went through and weeded out the categories on my blog that were not getting any “attention” from me (read:posts).  I also added categories that I have written on (at least partly) or that I am planning on writing on in the future.

Anyone who blogs (with WordPress at least) knows that this requires some formidible, time consuming issues, especially to prevent the dreaded “uncategorized” category from rearing it’s ugly head.  What that means is that I have to go back through all of my posts and check for any ‘uncategorized’, which is what pops up when you delete a former category.  Hence, I have reviewed my entire blog tonight. (more…)