Who do you believe?

I use to think that this blog had a very low number of daily visitors. I use Statcounter and have code on the blog that registers visitors. Then not too long ago blogger started to have a stats tab in their control panel. I have now been looking at the stats that blogger is reporting. There in lies the problem.

Statcounter reported that I only got 11 visitors yesterday, while blogger reports 96 visitors for yesterday. As I look over the past month I noticed that Statcounter is reporting only a handful of visitors a day while blogger reports an average of 50 to 200 visitors a day. I would love to believe the stats from blogger since that might explain the added interest in offering paid blog posts for the blog (I have turned all down in the last few weeks) that have little to do with the subject matter of the blog.

So who do I believe - Google (blogger) or Statcounter?

How ads can be misleading

The internet has not only brought the world into our homes it has also made us aware of the fact that there is a lot of people out there trying to separate us from our hard earned money. When finding information about any product online you have to be careful to note if the review was written by someone not associated with the product or if that article is really an advertisement.Many of my fellow bloggers are guilty of writing false and misleading claims when it comes to product endorsement. Then you have those spam emails.

I got an email advertisement just today...........just like the 30 others I normally get everyday. It was advertising Technical Recruiter Consultant Jobs. When you think about that phrase it makes you wonder what is a recruiter consultant? Is it someone who recruits consultants or is it someone who is a consultant and is needed for advice on how to hire recruits.  The phase is misleading if not confusing.

That is just an example of what type of double talk is going on online. Craigslist has plenty of gems when it comes to misleading ads. When I see something odd or misleading on Craigslist I will flag it.

I think that some people have been taking lessons from the politicians for their double speak.

Shocked by how little other bloggers are earning online

As most of you know, I earn money from my many blogs. I have many means of earning money from my blogs. They range from paid advertizing, affiliate advertising, Google Adsense and paid blog posts. I started doing this way back in 2006 and it has slowly grown over the years.

There are several other bloggers that have blogs that I visit. Among them are The Dragon Blogger at dragonblogger.com  It was while I was reading his income report for July 2011, that I was stunned. It was not because he reported a high income - he did not and that was what shocked me. He reported that he earned about $500 and had about $400 in costs so in reality he reported only about $150 in actual earnings for the month.

I was shocked because I thought of his blog as a well known and visited one. He should be earning at least $1000 a month from it by now. With my little known collection of blogs (22 of them) I earn a minimum of $800 and no expenses (other than internet access).  A few years ago I had over $5K from one of the smaller paid blogging companies. I don't pay for advertising and I don't hire ghostwriters. On one of my high earning days I can earn $250. I guess I am more successful as a professional blogger than I thought.

Making old things work

The TV at our house is one of the central pieces of furniture that everyone gathers around, much like most homes in the USA. When the speakers started to go out on it we debated the idea of getting a new LED TV but the cost right now is just a tad too much, at least for us. So we figured out another solution.

We had a Sony home theater system that we had not used in several years. It was stored in a back room and had 5 speakers. We would hook up the system to our Directv box and then just route the audio through the theater system. I had to go digging for the component video cables in a box but I found them. After a few tests and finding out what settings we needed we got it working. It only took us about 5 hours, but that included setting it up, wiring and dusting off everything and a few arguments about excessive wires all over the place. You see, hubby did not want to cut the 50' lengths of wire but have bundles of it showing. I convinced him to cut the wire to the 3' lengths that were needed. My excuse was that the cat would be attracted to the hanging bundles and play with them.

So now the TV is good for the time being until the picture goes out. 

Companies that refuse to enter the 21st century

Do you work for a place that has old fashion hand written time cards or tracks sales or purchases using an old ledger? Then you work at a place that the management or owner has a fear of the 21st century technology.

Such places are not as rare as you might think. I have gone into many small stores that don't have a laser barcode scanner or even accept credit cards because that involves having a new fangled gizmo to scan the cards. These stores are often own or run by people older than 50. Those people in their 60's and older don't own computers but rely on the younger generations in their family to do "all that computer stuff."

Many companies that do have computers are still fearful of anything in a digital format. They still have paper back ups for everything. I have worked at several places like that. They still remember the day when the computer crashed and took everything with it. Rather than upgrade to a better system or learn to back up their files, they continue print out everything.

Those are the companies that will be left in the dust as the computer age matures even further.

Buying a House

Today we have a guest blogger

I appreciate the guest post, Marian Combs

Moving has been a really stressful experience but I?m glad it?s finally over and we can settle into the new place. I love being able to come home to a house that?s 100% ours and know that I can do anything I want to it, from decorating to painting to the furniture we choose. We also got a dog since we have a big backyard now and that?s been a transition as well so there?s just a lot going on right now in our lives. I?ve been doing all the little stuff from going to HtTP://Direct.TV to look into satellite to waiting on the security alarm guy to come by and it?s just getting exhausting! It?s amazing how many things go into getting a new house and how much I like being a homeowner. I just had no idea owning this place would entail a lot more work than renting but if I had known I think I would still do it all over again the exact same way the next time around.

A new look to the blog

The blog is undergoing some major changes. First up is the new look. I am experimenting with some different layouts and themes. The main reason for the change is the fact that when I posted my last post (about Key bank) it was done using my iPod and an app called Blogbooster. That damn app is a POS. It put code into my blog's theme that changed the layout and it also inserted ads into the posts. The only way to "fix" it was to remove the old theme with one that I downloaded. The code even stayed when I switched themes within blogger so getting brand new code was the only way to go.

Many of the ads that were on the old layout were under performing so I decided to remove them. Google Adsense has always been my best source of income from this blog so that will stay.

So for the next few weeks you might see some more changes while I tweak things a bit.

Keybank is a rip off

How Keybank in Oregon is trying to rip me off......
I have a very small Checking account at Key Bank. The account is usually under $20 and kept that way for a reason. I was told by the manager that opened the account for me 2 years ago that if there was not enough money in the account to cover a charge or debit the charge or debit would be revoked

I found out that he lied to me.....

A $10 charge blossomed into a -$78!!!! They had so many fees attached to it - a total of $68 in a period of less than 48 hours. Now I am in the throws of getting the account closed but I am getting the run around.

Never again will I deal with that bank.

Cheap way to get you glasses fixed

We might make fun of the big retail giant Walmart but they do offer a great free service. They will fix your eye glasses for free. I have taken my glasses in there many times to have the plastic/nylon nose rests replaced. I always ask them "how much do I owe you," and the answer is always the same - "we don't charge for repairs."

My husband was always skeptical about them fixing my glasses for free. He thought that they probably think that I bought my glasses there. I told him to take his broken reading glasses in to them and see what happens.

The next day he took up my challenge and got back from Walmart very happy. His glasses, which were broken at one temple and needed a screw were repaired and they also had new nose bridge pads. He was very surprised that they fixed eye glasses for free.......................even if you didn't buy them there.

Why can't I come up with a nonsense word?

Our language is changing so fast. A few years ago who would have thought that Google would be a name of one of the largest companies in the world? Yahoo is another word that does not mean the shout that a cowboy would make. How about Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin? All of them are made up names and words.

Now I wonder why I can't think of any nonsense words. Let's see now, redmax sounds too much like the real estate agent but how about maxred? Nah, that sounds like an energy drink.

How about just 3 letters? TMZ is taken but how about MOOM, wait, I looked it up and it is a hair removal cream.

Oh, well, back to the thinking chair. The one that looks out on the mountains and on a clear day you can even see them,