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e_Marketing Blog Free Blog or Your Own Domain? Once you've decided to create your own blog, the first question you have to address is whether you want your blog to be hosted on your own web hosting account or be part of an already established site like wordpress.com, blogger.com, or one of the many other free blogging sites. If you use one of the free "hosted" blogging sites (Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, Blog.com, and many more) you can create a brand new blog in about 15 minutes. When you choose this option you become part of a larger site such as wordpress.com and your address will be something like http://yourtownrealestate.wordpress.com or http://yourtownmoneymanager.blogspot.com The advantage of this approach is that it is fast and cheap. Plus you will get some traction and search engine exposure for your blog because it will be part of a much larger network that gets crawled by the search engines on a regular basis. But in my estimation, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. WiMAX for Portland WiMAX service will soon be available in Portland, Oregon. What is WiMAX? It is a wireless alternative to cable or DSL. For a number of years this technology has promised to revolutionize the delivery of "last mile" service connecting homes and offices to internet access points. But these days the focus is more on mobile applications that make it a viable alternative to standard cell phone services. The provider of this service in Portland will be Clearwire, a company formed through joint cooperation of Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner. WiMAX will not be significantly cheaper than the alternatives, but it does promise to offer greater potential for merging disparate services such as internet, cell phone, Voip and cable tv. What Makes A Good Blog? Since I'm writing a series on "Creating A Successful Blog" I've been looking (not very diligently) for other opinions on what makes for a successful blog. One thing I've discovered is that there is no magic answer to this question. First of all, every blog speaks to a different audience in a different tone of voice. So what one group likes another group will find boring or maybe even overtly aggravating. I stumbled on an instance of this today when I followed a link from Lisa Barone's post called "Six Kickass Writing Resources for Bloggers". First on her list was "What Makes a Good Blog?" by Merlin Mann. Now I must admit there are several things in Merlin's list which I agree with, but I find the overall tone fairly aggravating. For instance, he says, "People start real blogs because they think about something a lot...They make and consume smart forebrain porn. So: where do this person's obsessions take them." Frankly I don't see why "obsession" is a necessary part of blogging. Is it because in order to do real blogging we must express our personality; and expressing our personality necessarily involves creativity; and because creativity is so relatively scarce and difficult that it will not happen without an obsessive focus on something? Or is this just the way an obsessive person looks at it? Of course it takes all types. But there is a certain arrogance and air of superiority about talk of obsession and creativity that I can do without. |
Ezine-Network.com - This site contains information about getting published — submission of articles, photographs, ebooks, and other special features for a growing number of online publications. It also contains significant amounts of information, resources dealing with, and examples of blogs and blogging. Ezine-Network.com is a member of the sbo-linknet.com network of websites. PayPal Offers New SMS-Based Money Transfer ServiceMar 24, 2006 - Linknet Business News PayPal Offers New SMS-Based Money Transfer Service Mar 24, 2006 - Linknet Tech NewsPayPal has just launched a new service called PayPal Mobile. This service allows a PayPal user with an active mobile phone account to send a payment to another PayPal account -- even another mobile user with a PayPal account. Of course the PayPal user at the other end of the transaction could be either an individual or -- more importantly -- a merchant. == Reduce mobile phone costs - Save hundreds of dollars on your mobile phone costs with this Insider's comparison guide. Free tips and secrets available! == This system clears the way for PayPal to enter the potentially massive "micro-payment" market. With PayPal Mobile anyone with a PayPal account could pay electronically for goods purchased from any merchant also having a PayPal account. Of course this capability already exists, but most PayPal users are stuck with making PayPal transactions using their computers. SMS-based payment system PayPal Mobile is mobile phone and SMS-based, which means you use text messaging to send the payment. That completely frees the user from dependence on his or her computer to access his or her PayPal account. PayPal Mobile payments are sent by sending a text message to 729725 (paypal), and then keying in the amount and destination of the payment. The destination can be another mobile number, a regular land-line number, or the person's email address (the one registered with PayPal). The new system currently only works with mobile phones in the U.K., U.S., and Canada, but is expected to expand to other countries once the bugs are worked out. To make use of this system, you need an active PayPal account. Login into your account and go to your Profile. Click on Phone, and then click on the "Activate Payments" link. You will be asked to enter a PIN, and will be phoned at your number to confirm your activation. == Free sms service - Send gsm sms (short message service) to German mobile phone users via our website. == Normal land-line numbers can be activated too, but of course, text messaging will not work with these. To send money by voice or keypad using your land-line, you call 1-800-4PAYPAL. Once the payment is sent, the person you are sending the money to will be notified by either an automated phone call, or by email. Potentially valuable for offline merchants The important thing to notice about this is that it lets a merchant associate a normal land-line number with his or her PayPal account. So say you're an antique dealer in Toronto. A customer wants to buy something from you and says "Do you take PayPal?". "Sure", you say, "Just send the payment to 416-123-1234". While he's standing in front of you your customer uses his cell phone to call PayPal and has the payment sent to your number. A minute later you receive an automated call informing you of the payment. And just to make sure, you check your online account to see if the funds have been transferred. PayPal is targeting mobile users It is fairly obvious who PayPal is targeting with this new text messaging payment service. It is a perfect fit for cell phone users who regularly use text messaging, and who also regularly buy things requiring fast, hassle-free micro payments. Digital music is the most obvious example. Other micro-payment systems are typically tied in with cell phone companies, payment processing companies that focus on merchant services, or in-house solutions like those provided by iTunes. That's all right if you deal with a limited number of vendors. But for customers who want to use this service for several vendors, they are forced to use a mish mash of payment processors depending on the merchant they are dealing with. Clearly there is a need for a reliable third party system that stands apart from specific merchants, specific banks, and specific credit card companies. A payment processing service provided by a broadly-used and legitimate money clearing house like PayPal seems like a pretty good idea, and one that has the potential to seriously increase the PayPal user base at the same time. Rick Hendershot publishes Linknet News | Get Article Writing Tips - Hundreds of articles
Linknet-News.com provides daily news summaries in article and RSS format.
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