Has been a long time since the last update.
I am not able to post regularly yet, so just back to bring you a short update.
If you have not already heard, I would like to introduce 2 websites to you which were launched several days apart few days ago:
Malaysia Today - http://malaysia-today.net/
Malaysia Today is no stranger to us, often providing great insights and shocking revelations. This is not a new launch, a relaunch would be more accurate, the site is back at its original web address and it looked (to me) more organized. Don't delete the URL of the backup site though, because judging by the new articles published on Malaysia Today, I would not bet against it being blocked (again) in the near future.
Free Malaysia Today - http://freemalaysiatoday.com/english/
I think this website would be less bias than the one featured above, it will assume the role of an alternative (and hopefully independent) news provider in the country, like its predecessors such as MalaysiaKini and Malaysian Insider but it will apparently cover many other topics besides socio-political news.
To read a more comprehensive review regarding these 2 websites, visit the link below:
New look for Malaysia Today, look out for FreeMalaysiaToday site
Do you have new and interesting Malaysian sites to share with me? Come on, don't be stingy, sharing is caring. Comments are always appreciated.
In conjunction with the 52nd Merdeka Celebration, our ever patriotic local web hosting company Exabytes is offering more than 50% discount on its web hosting packages (shared hosting packages only).
The countdown begins from 18 August 2009, anyone who purchases on that day are entitled to 52% discount off the original price of the hosting packages. As of today, the discount has been revised to 51% and tomorrow it will be 50%. Get the pattern now? If you have been planning to get yourself a web hosting (domains are also available at an all-time low price), there is no better time than now. The earlier you sign up with Exabytes, the more discount you will get, like they say, a penny saved is a penny earned.
The discount offered will continue to decrease until 30% when the promotion is to end. This promotion is available even after Merdeka Day, it will run until 14 September 2009.
To know more about this iLoveMalaysia Merdeka Promotion, visit the link below:
http://exabytes.com.my/merdeka/2009/index.php
Thank you Exabytes for the wonderful promotion. You are indeed a good role model, by demonstrating your corporate social responsibility consistently.
P.S. There is no affiliate link in this post. I hope you will benefit as much as possible from this promotion. Also, I am not paid by Exabytes to bring this news to you, although I don't mind being offered a free hosting package for my efforts. Just joking!
Warning: Affiliate links embedded within this blog post. Proceed with caution ;)
I have mentioned several times in my social networks and blogs that 2009 is the year of Twitter. It has the most tremendous growth and buzz in 2009, so much so that I suspect it will be hard for it to maintain the momentum and better its performance in the coming years.
If you are not quite familiar with the world of internet information marketing, you might not appreciate the popularity of Twitter and the hype going around it. Others will know what I say is true: Twitter information products (and tools) are highly sought after (check ClickBank trends) and bloggers are giving increasing priority to drive traffic through Twitter rather than social bookmarking sites such as Digg, large organizations and famous individuals are also trying hard to build up their own Twitter followings.
One famous blogger who recently cannot stop talking about Twitter and his product Twitter Rocket is Ashley Morgan. Ashley owns the PR7 authority blog Upstart Blogger.
Twitter Rocket is a system which will do the following for you (summarized):
- setting up and optimizing your Twitter account, making it attractive to other Twitter users and essentially make your account a "follower magnet" (quote).
- automate all the hard work needed to maintain a successful Twitter account.
- grow your followers by around 1,000 every week and rocket your followers, traffic and income (quote).
- monetize from your Twitter account successfully.
- keep within Twitter's rules, avoid suspension and keep your account safe.
Thus from this, I conclude that Twitter Rocket may or may not make you hundreds of dollars per week but if it could increase your followers up to 1,000 every week (recurring and might grow exponential), I feel that the price of $97 is money well spent! Especially if (most of) the 1,000 followers are genuine interacting and active humans.
Currently there are at least 2 success stories regarding Twitter Rocket users who leverage the system and their Twitter followers to sell the system as affiliates. Ashley himself revealed that the system has been selling well and his affiliates are making lucrative money. If you want to read more about the success of the said affiliates, try to find the following:
- "Proof that I made $2,538 in 7 days" written by one Hannah Solo. (google it)
- http://mondodynamo.com/how-i-make-a-passive-income-of-thousands-of-dollars-every-week
I have not purchased Twitter Rocket and I am not using the system (yet). My Twitter account has merely a little over 200 followers at this moment:
http://twitter.com/bobbytco
Ultimately, remember that I don't promise that you will achieve anything remarkable with Twitter Rocket, everything that you have read about here is quoted or implied directly from Ashley Morgan himself. I just wish to try to promote the hot system as an affiliate and see for myself how effective Ashley's legions of followers and networks are. I might buy this system myself once I make a single sale of it as an affiliate (just so that I know it is really in demand and the system of promoting something via Twitter is effective).
If you appreciate me bringing this system to your attention (which may well be a distinguished and effective Twitter system compared to other products out there), kindly consider purchasing it from my affiliate link below or read more about the system from Ashley himself:
The inevitable has happened. Apparently, EntreCard founder Graham Langdon has sold EntreCard Inc. to ZipRunner Inc. Googling the name ZipRunner Inc. returns zero relevant result apart from EntreCard's acquisition press release.
Read about the announcement here:
EntreCard has been acquired by ZipRunner
Here's a little about ZipRunner, as narrated by its CEO, Andrew Te:
ZipRunner is an investment company with many years of experience with Internet companies. We intend to have a smooth transition and will continue to provide essential services such as dropping cards, earning credits and allowing bloggers to network. We believe that these services are what make Entrecard special. In addition, Entrecard will continue to have Richard Clark (phirate), Entrecard’s founding developer, on its management team.I really hope this move will further improve EntreCard. EntreCard has gone from (blogger) fans' favorite to a controversial startup, with divided opinions about Graham's plans and what he hope to achieve with EntreCard. No doubt Graham's decisions have been partly fueled by desire to break even or earn some profits from EntreCard even after serving the blogging community without any charges for a year or two.
To Graham's credit, he has implemented many changes to EntreCard in the final few months of his tenure as CEO, probably much more than he has ever done in the 2 year prior to that. Some noticeable changes in recent months:
- introduction of paid ads on EntreCard network which is wildly popular
- revamp of the old forum and setting up a new one
- offering to buy back EntreCard credits from members
- asking members to complete CPA offers in exchange for EntreCard credits to raise funds
http://ontrapranore.com/
Lastly I also hope for the best for EntreCard users. If there is one thing ZipRunner could do to make us believe that EntreCard is improving for the better under their management, please honour Graham's initiative to allow EntreCard users to cash out their credits! I have about $100-200 worth of credits now and I don't really know how to spend it.
I welcome response from Graham Langdon, ZipRunner Inc. and Andrew Te as well as other bloggers and people from EntreCard community network.
Have you heard about Homepages Friends? It was among the first paid to search programmes available online. I have personally earned about £30 from this programme.
It is undoubtedly easy to earn money from this programme which pays its members either through check or PayPal. Members are also paid commissions for referring new members to the service (similar to a multi-level marketing scheme). The searches made by members are automatically recorded and audited to determine the earnings payable to the members. I have no complaint toward the accuracy of the recording and audits but Homepages Friends is known to delay in paying its members even when they have reached the minimum payout amount and time dues.
Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to a (bad or not so good) end. Apparently, Homepages Friends could no longer pay us (50% of) the revenue made from our searches, we can only choose which charity to contribute the earnings to. Members from certain countries are completely restricted from using the service.
Check out the screen shot above, click to view for enlarged view. I am obviously using Homepages Friends search service from a country permitted to use it but still I get such error message. I am reluctant to contact the support to sort out the matter. Obviously user experience and welfare are not the priority of the company anymore.
I feel the members who were responsible for building up the service and helping it earn money are not properly compensated (and consulted over this crucial decision to stop paying members for their searches). The company also tried to offer cheap incentive such as cash prizes of £250, £200 and £150 in a lucky draw to coerce and lure members to agree to the new terms and agreement of the service in order to be eligible for the draw.
The prizes are not exactly cheap but what about other members who do not win? To whom do you owe the success of your company and service? Is this what your members deserve, some which have stood by you even when payment to them are delayed by a few months and tolerated your below par support system (as far as I am concerned there is only 1 staff which often does not offer solution or answer, the staff merely forwards generic responses towards members' concerns)?
It was good while the win-win (50/50) situation existed. You may turn your back on us when you no longer needed us. In a similar way, you will never know when your partner, be it Ask.com or Yahoo! will turn its back on you. Thank you for the opportunity, we will now look elsewhere in the paid to search circle, we wish you the best of luck.
P.S. I am trying to speak on behalf of Homepages Friends members who are in the same situation as I am and feel similarly. I am aware that no all members and general public share the same sentiment towards Homepages Friends. If you feel differently, do share your opinions with us by commenting below. Comments and responses from Homepages Friends management and people who are in the know of the situation are also welcomed.
