Updates

Devo the Whippet Lives On

Just an update... Devo is doing really well. She had her staples removed a couple of days ago and aside from being extremely lazy, she is getting back to her old self.

Wine Making is Fun

I started making wine the other day. Next time I make a brew I will take photos of the process. But basically you need to buy a kit containing a bucket, glass carboy (6 gallon jug), a bunch of tubes, a corking contraption, a hydometer (to measure density and alcohol content) and a wine juice kit to make wine without crushing grapes. It is fermenting right now, should be delicious!

Thanksgiving in the U.S.A

So I was watching football, some movies and having a couple of beers today. I have no family in town and all of my friends are busy doing family things so I am left alone on Thanksgiving. So with all my time to think I have discovered one thing. People are stupid.

I was reading an article about how Obama isn't releasing their menu to the public for their thanksgiving meal. Not obviously a big story. So as I scrolled down I realized that there was 129 comments about the story, but most of them were just people bitching about how Obama is a bad president or how Republicans suck. It just amazes me how one day a year we get to reflect on how great our country is and how much we should be grateful that we live here and not in Afghanistan or Zimbabwe. Yet we squander it in a forum on a story that isn't even a political story.

Be thankful for what you have and live your life. Thanksgiving is once a year and you shouldn't spend it reflecting on politics or not reflecting at all. You should truly reflect on how your world would change if we lived somewhere else. Not on what the first family is eating or not eating on thanksgiving and why.

Devo the Whippet Leg Amputation

I am very tired of telling the story of how I got to this place with my dog Devo. So here is a summery of the experiences and cost so if you are presented with a similar thing you can make an educated decision.

Devo had a lump on her front leg and went to get it removed. The surgery didn't go so hot and I chose amputation as an alternative to reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy. The cost of the initial sugery and post sugery treatments totaled $1200 in 4 days and 13 vet visits.

I was quoted $4000 for reconstructive surgery, $950 in visits for 3 weeks worth of rewrapping her origional wound and wasn't quoted chemotherapy which I estimate at another $3000 - $4000. I was also quoted $2000 for an amputation by the local emergency pet hospital.

So on 11/25/09 I had her front right leg removed by a very helpful animal shelter that I had volunteered at. Though I didn't qualify for any discounts or anything they were still 1/3 the cost of the local animal hospital and very capable of doing the surgery.

It has only been 10 hours since her surgery and she is on some morphine type patch and other pain meds and is more or less out of it. She whines occasionally but seems to be doing okay. After I picked her up she actually jumped into the car by herself. So she seems to be rebounding pretty good. Her pictures right after surgery are below:




I will keep the updates coming so if you end up with a tri-pod dog you can know what to expect from the surgery.

Reflecting on my decision to not vote

A few days ago I posted about how I no longer want to be a part of American politics because I no longer feel it can change. This may sound like I am just another part of the problem. Though at first glance this may seem true, but this doesn't mean you have to vote to change America. My thought is that America is so broken that voting for things (especially in national votes) won't change them.

So what do we do? We concentrate on our communities and schools. We work hard to make the communities we live in a good place to live. The good we do in a community will translate to the bigger picture more than one person could by themselves. Community by community and state by state things will change until the federal government finally has to change.

A friend told me that there is a feud of generations going on. The two have very different views and do not see eye-to-eye. On may get their news from online media and social media circles and one gets their news from traditional media such as tv, radio and papers. But this doesn't make either side wrong, it just shows that the country is transitioning. Things will change, and I am sure both sides deep down know it will happen, but for now it is frustrating. I am sure many things will done and said that people will regret on both sides, but in the end we should end up in a better country. Hopefully in the end we will end up a bit more unified.

Discouraged with American Politics

I have been thinking about our political system in America a lot recently. I am disappointed with the direction I see this country going and I am more disappointed with how our politicians and political pundits have been acting. This disappointment is leading me down a path of disinterest and indifference. Simply put, I am fed-up.

To those that don't know me, let me preface this by saying my beliefs are the following:

I am fiscally conservative, socially liberal and moderate on most of the other issues. Therefore, I feel that I can find middle ground with just about anyone. I also feel that most people in the US are moderate but we only hear about a few primary issues that define who is liberal and who is conservative.

• Do I think America is a great country? Yes.
• Do I think America is better than most countries? Yes.
• Do I feel that America is royally screwing things up? Yes.
• Do I blame it on Democrats? No.
• Do I blame it on Republicans? No.
• Do I blame it on the media? A tiny bit.
  
• Do I blame it on us? YES!

The people are the problem. We elect the representatives that we complain about. We watch shows and give ratings to opinion columnists, not news broadcasters. We are the ones who want our news fed to us so we don't have to think about the facts ourselves. Why make our own conclusions when someone can make it for us!

This problem is nothing new, it is just new to me. It took me a while to come full circle and end up exactly where I started. It is sad when the system give the people ALL the power but we cannot agree on anything to the point where no one gets what they want. It is sad when we feel like no matter how we vote it has to be for one of the two parties or we are throwing our vote away. It is just sad that we all go through life looking for the differences in our opinions instead of trying to find out what we have in common.

It is for this reason that I am officially resigning from the political process. I am no longer going to vote until I see things change. I truly believe that any president in office today would get nothing of impact passed because of all the bickering and name calling at lower government levels and I cannot see that changing. Only time will tell.

Race in the Media

Recently I had a discussion about the president and the media. During it I brought up race because for the first time in my life I actually believe that racism has a visible part in our belief system. I am one of the people who agree with Carter when he said that some of Obama's opponents are racially motivated.

Now let me say that I do not believe conservatives or republicans to be racist. But I do believe that more and more of what the conservative media, particularly talk radio, programs is about race than ever before. I also don't believe that a majority of people that disagree with Obama do so because he is black. Simply, I think there is a small, but vocal group, of conservatives that are uneasy with the idea that a black president. Because they feel that a black president may represent other groups over themselves first, or perhaps they feel that the policies have another agenda.

But why now? I think having a black president has given a "green light" to white people to discuss race publicly without worry that we are going to be labeled racist. So the talk shows have gotten on the bandwagon first. Unfortunately, it turns out that they are a bit racist and the more racist they get the more their ratings go up.

Glenn Beck's ratings doubled once he said the president had a deep seeded hatred towards white people. Limbaugh's ratings continue to grow the more he brings up race as an issue. He is not even allowed on Monday night football anymore because of his inability to refrain himself from making negative comments about black football players.

I just hope that through all this race discussion we don't make race relations worse. I don't want the discussion to start as something that is good and genuine and to end up like a reality show on tv where everyone looks like a looser.


Interesting Stat about how bad race relations are. Sure hate crimes may be down, but what about just plain old "They are not like us and that isn't as good" attitudes:

In 2009 where 1/8 people still consider themselves racist.
(On the bright side, 35% of Canadians consider themselves racist -- or maybe they are just more honest)

Interesting Stat 2:
3x's as many black people get pulled over and issued a ticket that is dismissed for "improbable cause" meaning that they were pulled over without reason.

Google's Caffeine is Shaking Up Search Results

Search engine optimization is starting to become a lot like the stock market: some of your investments pay off quickly, some don't ever pay off, and others go great for years and all of a sudden are worthless.

If you find that your search results are not what they used to be it may be because of all the changes regarding the search engine market. Every search company is trying to differentiate themselves in this crowded market and this is stirring up rankings.

A month or so ago, Microsoft launched Bing which was promised to provide better results than ever before. They also partnered with Yahoo, meaning webmasters no longer have to optimize their site for Google, Yahoo and MSN (Bing) to ensure they are getting maximum exposure. Now there are just two big dogs, but there is going to be a wrench thrown into the mix.


Google is launching a new search engine named Google Caffeine. Caffeine claims to deliver faster and more accurate search results and the launch could slow Bing's growth.

The public can test Caffeine to see where a site ranks or see what the differences are. It is not nearly as large a change as what Bing was, but it may have some large implications to your website traffic. One of the enhancements will revolve around getting real time data. As news breaks or new content is published it will be added to Caffeine almost immediately.

Google's Caffeine Sandbox


Search engine optimization



Google and Bing are claiming to focus more on crawling of relevant content and reliable websites. This means more time should be spent on boosting your website's content and making sure the structure of your website is sound. There are several things your webmaster can do to make sure you are visible to both Google's Caffeine and Bing.

One of the areas that is being de-emphasized is backlinks. Using the old Google and MSN, backlinks were king; the more links you had to your website the higher ranking you would receive. This caused a problem in the industry because you could literally buy your way to the top. While backlinks are still very important, having website content that is relevant is even more important.

Finally, the age of your website is more important. New websites are being penalized and older domains are being rewarded. There is really nothing you can do about this aspect, just make sure to register new domains as early as possible and don't switch domain names if you can avoid it.

This article was written for Tekniq by Josh Collins

Some insight into Bing, and why you may actually like it

Not all search engines are created equal, if they were Google wouldn’t have over 60% of the worlds search market. But is Bing a Google killer or just another search with a few gimmicks?

At first glance, Microsoft’s msn.com replacement looks surprisingly familiar. It has a search box in the middle of the screen, some links along the top to sign in or create an account and other links that access "images, videos, shopping, news, maps and travel." So, upon first look, it seems that Microsoft spent 100 million dollars to create… Google! But this is really where the similarities stop.

Bing is livened up by a crisp background image that links to some interesting facts and videos about the pictures when you rollover certain areas. Neat, but it is not exactly going to make Bing the search engine of choice.


So how about their search results?

Search results are displayed in the same format as Google and even their results are similar. When I searched for "Kyocera Kansas City" Tekniq popped up as #1 on both search engines. But on Bing I was able to hover my mouse over a little symbol to the right of the results and see a text preview of the page and what the page links to. This little feature could be handy, but with high speed internet it’s probably just faster to click and go to the site to see it yourself.

So where does it really excel?

Bing may be similar in appearance and functionality to Google for searching, but where Bing really dazzles is with its other programs.

1. Bing Images
Bing allows for better image searching and displaying. You can customize the layout of the images and there is no flipping through pages to see more results, simply scroll down and more images appear.

Bing also has a "Show similar Images" link on every image. This is great for finding the type of image you want. So if you want an image of a person talking on a phone, you can type in "phone" and then find the image that you want and click "Show similar images" and you will see more like that image.

2. Bing Videos
Bing has a searchable video service that has video’s from youtube, ABC, BBC and other sites. It also has a quick preview feature where you can roll over the video and it will start streaming it immediately so you can preview the video before even clicking on it.

3. Bing Shopping with cashback
Perhaps one of the best features that Bing has is their shopping feature. It is easy to use and similar to Google shopping but they have a cashback program that pays you up to 10% for buying from certain vendors.

Some of their prices seem to correspond to the wrong products, but one can only assume that it is because the service is new. If they fix this then why would you ever shop online any other way?

4. Bing Maps
Bing’s mapping feature is leftover from live.com. But if you have never checked it out, I think you may be impressed. It has great satellite and areal imagery that let you view your house from all four angles instead of just a bird’s eye view. It also has a plug-in that you can install to access true 3d mapping.

Though it doesn’t have an answer to Google Streets, it is still a nice tool and good in its own right.

Bing really does deliver some impressive features without losing what most love about Google. If Google doesn’t respond to some of these features by making changes of their own, then Bing may be something to reckon with. My guess is that Google responds in a big way and is able to leverage their name to once again increase their market. But for now, Bing may be the search engine of choice.

New Killer Condom Post

Killer Condom is being updated every wednesday. So far it is going pretty well. We are trying to come up with new matchups that are both wrong and disturbing for your enjoyment. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Madonna vs. Britney Spears

Refinishing, Sanding, Staining and Polyurethane a Hardwood Oak Floor

Overview:Recently, I was charged with the task of refinishing a hardwood oak floor. The floor was underneath a layer of carpet that had been laid a couple years prior.

Refinishing a wood floor isn't all that hard if you know what you need beforehand. I refinished mine because there were some really dull spots on the floor and there were also some dents and scuffs I wanted removed.

Preparation: Remove the carpet

If you have carpet you are going to have to remove it! This part is easy, just tug on a corner and pull it off the tack board. Cut the carpet in long 3 or 4 food sections using a sharp box cutter. Simply, roll it up and haul it away.

You will be left with your pad. In my case the pad was just stapled down and not glued, so you pretty much do the same thing as the carpet and just roll it up and haul it away.Once you get all the carpet and pad removed you have to get rid of the staples and tack board. Invest in a good molding removing pry bar. It will look similar to a normal pry bar on one end, but will have an odd shaped other end that is specially designed to pull finishing nails out of tight places. This tool will save you tons of time! As for the staples, pull em out with pliers, it is time consuming but pretty easy.

Preparation: Remove the trim

If you have trim that overlaps the hard wood you will have to remove that as well. This is pretty easy if you bought the molding pry bar. Simply pry it up and remove the finishing nails. Once you are done with all of this you are left with your wood floor and you are ready for the real fun.

Choose a Sander:

Now it is time to rent a floor sander. There are several different kinds that you can rent from Home Depot. They are similar in cost but different in a few ways.

• Belt Sander: It is designed to take off layers of your floor quickly. This may be best left to a professional since you can screw your floor up the fastest with this one.


• Orbital Sander - 3 disc: This sander is one of the more common ones, it is easy to use and good for a beginner. It is a bit more aggressive than the next sander.


• Orbital Sander - square pad: This is the least aggressive but perhaps the most forgiving. Because you will have to make many passes with the sander if you want to really get down to the bare wood this one can be time consuming but good for a beginner. This is the one I used.

Sanding down the floor:

For this tutorial I am going to discuss using a square pad orbital sander since that is what I used. Start with a 30-40 grit sandpaper and slowly make a pass going with the floorboards. You should see the polyurethane and some of the stain come off pretty quickly. The pads don't last all that long because they get polyurethane clumps on them so I went through about 2 pads every 10 by 10 area.

**Note** Vary your pattern. Don't always start and stop on the same place on the floor. It can create a pattern that is noticeable.

Since this one is forgiving you can go over and over the same spots without really digging into the wood too much, so my recommendation would be to go over each spot a couple times back and forth and then move on to the next row. If you get done and you need to go back over it that isn't a problem. Just remember that you are going to use a higher grit (finer) sand paper afterward that will take off some more wood. The most important part is making sure all the polyurethane is off the floor.

**Note** I had some problems because in some of my dents in the floor I wasn't getting all the shine off the floor in every place. But as I went to the finer sandpaper it got almost all of this off.

Since the large floor sander cannot get all the way to the edge you are going to have to use a hand sander with similar grit paper on the edges. This is time consuming and I didn't get mine 100% even, but since I was staining it was going to help cover up my imperfections.

After you are done making several passes of 30-40 grit paper, do the same thing with 60-80 grit paper. This should take less time since you are touching things up.

Finally, you put on your finest sandpaper (around 150 grit). You should only need to go over once or twice and these pads should last about twice as long. I only used two for a 400sq foot area.

Remember to do the edges with your hand sander after each step.

The result

You should be left with a dull floor without any shine and little, if any, stain. The next step is staining and applying polyurethane.

Staining hardwood floor

Before you stain the floor you need to make sure ALL the dust and particles are off the floor and the central air is turned off. First sweep the floor and vacuum what you can up. Then you can wet some cloth rags with mineral spirits and use that as a tack cloth.

Applying stain is easy. I used a stain applicator that attaches to a broom stick. Pretty much wipe it on in the direction of the wood. Do it in sections and then wait about 5 minutes and wipe the excesses stain off with lint free rags. Then move to the next section and repeat.

The process can be time consuming with all the waiting between sections. I did two sections on different sides of the house at a time to speed this up.

Drying time

Once the stain is done you have to wait for it to dry. I used a Cabot oil based stain and it took over 48 hours to dry because there wasn't a lot of ventilation in the house and it was cold and rainy outside. Once the stain stops being tacky in most spots you are probably ready to put your finish on it. Sweep the floor and get up all dust.

Finishing the floor with Polyurethane

If you bought oil based stain then you are going to want oil based polyurethane. Apply it in much the same way you did the stain. I used a lamb wool applicator that connected to a broom stick. Make sure your rinse it out with mineral spirits beforehand or you will get a lot of lamb wool on the floor. Apply it in a light coating and make sure it covers all surfaces. I made two passes with the pad.

Once you get your first coat down the kind I used said you can apply another within 12 hours without sanding. I read nightmare stories about this online. So I would do it the normal way and wait 12-24 hours until it is dry and then sand it down. You can sand it by attaching a find (250-300 grit) piece of sandpaper to a foam mop head and go over the floor lightly. You are just trying to scuff it up so the next layer will bond to the previous layer.

Clean up the dust, I used a micro-fiber fabric and swept it up. Then use your mineral spirit tack cloth to get up fine dust.

Apply your next layer and wait!

Curing time

After your second coat you should be done, all you have to do is wait for the floor to cure. This time varies but the general rule of thumb is that after 2 days you can have light foot traffic on the floor and after 4 or 5 days you can put your furniture back on it. Do not put rugs on it until after a week or more.

Final Notes

After all of this your floor should be done. It doesn't cost all that much compared to a new floor. I spent about $300 in rental fees, stain and other things I needed to do a 400 square foot area.

Killer Condom is Done!

KillerCondom.com is finally complete... or mostly complete. The site is similar to celebrity death match but the matchups are not always celebrities. They are video game characters, tv personalities, objects, brands and more. It should be pretty funny and sometimes a little bit on the wrong side.

The site will update every wednesday at 9am, please share it with your friends.

Killer Condom

House **floor update**

Well I am finally moved in, actually moved in last weekend. The floor looks great, the furniture is in it and the dog is getting used to surroundings. The floor stain took about 2 days to dry and it was still a little tacky in a couple place but I went ahead and polyurethaned it anyhow. I applied it with a lambs wool applicator and mopped it on. Everything went pretty smooth until the end when I encountered the tacky stain and it started moving the stain around a bit.

I let that dry for a day and then I sanded it down with 320 grit paper attached to a foam mop, then I used a terry cloth pad to wipe up the dust and swept it and then applied another layer of polyurethane. I let this one dry for a day and I was done. 3 days later I put the furnature on it and 5 days later moved in with the dog.

There is still a lot of things to be done with the house, mostly minor things but time consuming nevertheless.

I am banning myself from Home Depot and Lowes, I overspend for everything. Every time I walk into one of the stores, I buy about 10 other thing I didn't plan on buying. Or better yet, I buy about 10 things that I can't use because they don't fit so I end up returning everything.

Anyhow, here are some pictures...

New House - Projects that never end!

So I bought a house last week. The process was a bit of a pain, more confusing than anything, but now it is done and the real fun has started. Like most home owners I decided to 'make it my own'. I decided to paint the rooms and rip out the carpet and show the hardwood. But like every project, it is not as easy as it seemed. I pulled the carpet only to find a billion staples, nails, tackboard that needed to be removed. I removed all of that and found that the hardwood wasn't as nice as I would have liked.

So project 2 begun: Project 'Refinish the floor'

So I rented a sander from home depot and started sanding it down. Word of advise to anyone refinishing floors, do not rent the vibrating square sander if you have a lot of deep sanding to do. It takes forever. I made 10-12 passes while changing 36 grit sandpaper over and over. Finally, I moved on to the hand sander with the help of a special friend.

Once the sanding was all done -- or err... mostly done we decided to apply stain. As you can see from the photo below, the staining process went pretty well.

Unfortunately, the stain wouldn't dry. So after 48 hours I gave up and put the polyurethane on over the tacky stain. I have yet to see if this ruined the floor or what. I will keep posting on the process of the floor... stay tuned!

Killer Condom on its way!

Some of you may remember a site called Killercondom.com, it was a site I made for fun. It consisted of funny matchups (fights) between dumb movie characters such as Gremlins vs. Critters. Well it is almost back! Sometime in April I will be relaunching it better than ever, you should definitely have to check it out.

Inspirational People - Not the usual suspects

The world is full of good people, but sometimes all we hear is the bad. Here is a short list that comes to mind of people we can all learn from, and be inspired by. This is just the first two, there will be more to come.

George Foreman - A typical rags to riches story. It is about a black man growing up in Texas with a single mom in the 60's. He decides he isn't going to be another faceless teenager that is part of the problem and joins a job force agency that educates him and preps him for his Olympic run at Boxing gold. He never gave up and in the end he won the gold, two heavy weight titles and become one of the most loved boxers to ever live.

Curt Shilling - Sometimes he is loved, sometimes he is hated; but he always puts others first. No one will forget his bloody sock on Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS game. It is a a symbol that you can do anything if you want it bad enough. It was also a sign that it was the year of destiny for all Red Sox fans.

His work off field is also inspirational, he has founded a charity organization and raises money regularly through fundraisers with his wife.

Justice Requires Money

I have been getting my first glance at the legal system lately, all due to a traffic ticket. When I first started to fight the ticket, which I viewed as un-just, I didn't realize how much time, effort and money it would take to get justice.

It all started one night when I was driving my friends home from a party. I was the designated driver that night. While on the way home I checked my mirrors, put on my turn signal and went to change lanes, to my dismay there was a car beside me which I didn't see. I quickly sped up and went back over to my lane to get out of the way. Unfortunately, this was all that was needed to give me a "Reckless Driving" ticket because the car I encroached on was a KU Police Car.

I explained that I didn't see her in my blind spot and she proceeded to give me a ticket that is usually reserved for drag racing and weaving in and out of traffic dangerously.

So after I got the ticket, I thought "This should be pretty easy for me to take care of on my own, since I didn't do what the statute for reckless driving said."

That was where I was dead wrong. I showed up on my court date only to find out that they were closed on the 12/26/08 for the holiday. So I called the next week and scheduled a new time. This was 1/12/09. I show up that morning and I was not on the docket and to make matters worse I had to post bond for "failure to appear to court" on a day the court was closed!" So things started to get a bit frustrating.

I finally showed up to court on 1/27/09 and talked to the prosecutor who I told what happened and she said, "We do not plea-bargain under any circumstance for this offense unless you are a minor." I was amazed, so I had a trial time setup and found out how to get a hold of the video that showed my "crime."

I got the video and it showed exactly what I had hoped and more. It showed the officer going faster than traffic, passing all the cars on the right (including myself) in snowy weather. It shows that if she wasn't passing me on the right (and possibly speeding) that she wouldn't have been behind me 3 seconds before and beside me in my blind spot at the moment I changed lanes.

But it showed a lot more than just that. The officer was attached to a microphone the whole time she was in her car. It showed her calling to ask whether she can issue me a "unsafe lane change" even though I used my turn signal. This is a minor offense, much more fitting, and only a 15 dollar fine instead of a 90 day suspension of license! It shows her desire to give me a fine but her inability to figure out what fine would stick thus giving me something that the court has to deal with.

Now, I am ready with my evidence, with new hope that I can get this mistake cleared up, but with new disrespect for the local justice system. After talking with a lawyer, he is confident that all it will take is him talking to the prosecutor to get it reduced. So instead of having a "unsafe lane change" that costs me 15 dollars and no time in court. I have to pay several hundred to hire a lawyer to get it down to that same charge. Not to mention if I wanted to fight an "unsafe lane" change I could have gotten it reduced to a non moving violation thus keeping my driving record in tact.

If I had more money to fight it, I would want to go to trial and prove that what I did could have been avoided if the officer had not been passing on the right or simply going the speed of traffic in bad weather. I would want to prove that she would have given me a lesser fine had I NOT used my turn signal. I would want to prove that the justice system doesn't require money to get a fair shake.

For the Video use this link, best viewed with Windows Media Player:
Traffic_stop_Collins.wmv

Follow up:

I hired a lawyer, went to court and after 3 appearances it was finally thrown out the day of trial when the cop failed to show.

Online Marketing Strategies

As companies seek to find more effective, and less expensive, marketing methods, online marketing stands to see the biggest increase. Businesses already spend more on online marketing than they do on Radio and is set to surpass magazines by 2010 (ZenithOptmedia, 2007). However, you can do many things to make sure your website is not lost in the clutter. Below are the top actions your business can take to increase your website exposure and increase your ROI.

1) Maintain and improve your website

Unless your business has an endless marketing budget then you need to rely on your website’s quality to drive traffic to your site. A high-quality website doesn’t just mean something that looks pretty. It means that you have text that engages the reader, contains your keywords, and can be found by Google and other search engines.

Simply put, your website design needs to adhere to current industry standards with special attention to the basics like page titles, meta descriptions, accessibility, and navigation.

2) Build web presence

Once your website has the basics down you can concentrate on promoting it. Depending on your product you may want to utilize viral media sources like YouTube, MySpace or Twitter. These can be great for B2C type product lines if used in conjunction with directory placements, online press releases, online trade publications, forums and article submissions. The key is to get as many quality links to your website as possible; this will increase your search rankings. The higher your rankings are, the more traffic you will get.

3) PPC advertising

There are several PayPerClick options to choose from. The largest network consists of Google AdWords. You may have noticed these ads when you search for a product on Google and there are “sponsored links.” Adverisers pay to see their advertisement there when you search for certain keywords. This can be a very effective method to drive traffic to your website.

Note: PPC advertising is getting more expensive because of the dramatic increase in competition over the years. This could also reduce the effectiveness of your campaign if it is not monitored closely.

4) eNewsletters

Sending out eNewsletters can be a very effective way of staying in front of leads and existing clients. There are a couple of basic guidelines when sending an eNewsletter.

1. Frequency – Choose a frequency that makes sense. If you email them too much it will reduce the effectiveness of all the newsletters
2. Content – Don’t send a newsletter for the sake of doing it. Provide your mailing list with something of interest and they will thank you for it.
3. Unsubscribe – Make sure your newsletter has an Unsubscribe option. It will help you maintain an email list that is of the highest quality and reduce bad feedback.
4. Compatibility—There are countless email programs. You need to make sure that your eNewsletter looks acceptable in the major ones like Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo.
   

5) Campaign evaluation

One of the most important part of making an online marketing campaign is measuring its results. Keeping track of keyword rankings, incoming leads, new website traffic, and sales are among the most important indicators to a successful campaign. Since online media is usually fast moving and contains many traceable activities you should be able to track the success of your campaign with much greater detail than any other media.

School Year Changes

I have been appauled at how the KC School District runs ever since I got to Kansas City. When I was in school in the 90's in New Hampshire, we had a lot of 90 minute delays or half days due to the number of large snow storms. But we didn't get every one of those slippery days off! We trudged through the snow to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come to a skidding stop to get us.

When the weather reached bitter cold and the buses couldn't start, we had a 90 minute delay while they jump started the buses, never did we lose a day because of cold weather.

Today's kids in Kansas City get every wednesday as a half day, so the teachers can collaberate with eachother. After talking to a teacher, she described this as a "joke". Other area schools have 4 - 6 days off a year for parent/teacher conferences and meetings. Then, with all of this time off, they get more days off when the weather is cold or we get a coating of snow.

This, in turn, pushes school to start earlier in the year and end later which is a bad thing. Why is this a bad thing you may ask? It is bad for two reasons: First, a child needs to learn responsibility. They need to learn that when it snows they don't get a free day or that a work week doesn't consist of 4 short days followed by a half day. Secondly, parents rely on school as a form of daycare. When their kids aren't at school they need to find someone to watch them while they are at work. This can be expensive.

So why has all this changed? It's the parents! The parents have too much of a role in their kids education and it is destroying it. It is one thing to be involved and know what you child is doing in school, it is another thing to bitch about everything they are doing so in the end the school spends more time trying to please every parent and it results in worse education, longer school years to make up for everything, more "official" parent/teacher confrences that require whole days off from school and students that think their parents run the show and not the teachers.

It is bull shit. Parents, education is not just about where they go to school, it is about the values they get while they are there and the experience of having to do things themselves. If you take away their responsibilies you take away a solid part of their learning. This may mean that you don't put up a stink when they read a book that you don't agree with (afterall, how will they ever be well rounded if they don't get exposed to all sides of things) and it might mean that you give them an extra layer when it is cold out instead of calling for the school to cancel.

Golden Globes

Finally, a movie won best picture that deserved it. Slumdog Millionaire was simply a great movie. The story was interesting, well-told and kept me wanting more. I wouldn't change anything about the film and when it was over, I felt totally satisfied.

Slumdog was the only movie in 2008 that I rated 4 stars and was clearly the best movie of the year.