Blogcritics Author: Christopher Rose

Interview with Gauher Chaudhry, Creator of Pay Per Click Formula

Christopher Rose — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:07:58 EDT

Gauher Chaudhry is one of the best PPC marketers in the world and tells us a bit about his techniques and background.
Many people are aware that it is possible to make a very decent living on the Internet, almost regardless of one's personal financial or physical circumstances. Not so many people actually know how.There is a lot of very misleading, incomplete, out of date or simply inaccurate information to be found on the web, which can lead to expensive and...

Website Review: The 20/20 Challenge

Christopher Rose — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:00:45 EST

Do you have what it takes to accept the 20/20 Challenge and make $20,000 in just twenty days?
The 20/20 Challenge offers a simple and bold proposition: earn $20,000 in twenty days or get your money back. It's a strong idea but is it a strong proposition? Let's find out.Before going any further, it's probably crossed your mind by now that such a bold statement as "earn $20,000 in 20 days or your money back" obviously...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

e-Book Review: Blogging To The Bank 2.0 by Rob Benwell

Christopher Rose — Mon, 6 Aug 2007 14:18:10 EDT

Rob Benwell's Blogging To The Bank 2.0 is a detailed breakdown and explanation of the techniques used by one of England's youngest and most commercially successful bloggers to create profitable blogs that draw in thousands of targeted visitors. Or so he says -- so let's find out!Compared to the original version, BTTB2 is a completely re-written work and Benwell claims that it's not necessary to have previous blogging or Internet marketing experience. His techniques come in two parts, a basic blueprint designed for new bloggers followed by a new section for serious bloggers featuring more advanced techniques. I'm about to try out both sets of techniques and report what happens for our mutual greater understanding and, who knows, possibly profits, too.After introducing himself and detailing his background and previous experience, Benwell sets the framework for his approach, stating, "The only way to have long term blogs that produce results for months to come is to follow the 5 blogging commandments".So we're all working from the same perspective, here are the five commandments in full: 1) Imitate Nature: Don’t go stuffing keywords into posts or overdoing on page SEO. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are looking for quality sites by real people, not someone spitting out hundreds of blogs per month filled with keywords and ads. 2) Add Some Visitor Value: About every post you write should offer some value to your readers. Now this doesn't mean it has to change their life or anything but it needs to offer them value. Even posts about a related article with a link or a product review are good. Blogs filled with RSS vomit don’t offer value and won't last. 3) Make It Sticky: Your blog should have people coming back to it and reading it again and again. Make sure you include RSS reader buttons so visitors can subscribe to the feed. Also opt-in newsletters that offer more than just updates are a good idea but the number one way to get people to come back is to offer excellent likable content. 4) Don’t Let Your Blog Die: After testing I've seen huge differences in blogs that are kept updated and offers that don’t get new posts. You don't have to post every day or even every week but make sure you don't just set them up and forget about them because they will die off and lose traffic. 5) Market = Profit: If you are after making the most money you can from a blog them the most important decision you make will be the market you blog for so make sure you research it well first.From there we move on to his step-by-step blueprint, which I intend to follow precisely, so let's get started.Step one is market research and the first thing to decide is whether to target an affiliate product market or rely on Google AdSense or other advertising to generate money. Benwell has always had more success with affiliate marketing so in the great tradition of following in the guru's footsteps, I'm going to do the same. Affiliate marketing is the art of creating a market for someone else's pre-existing product, which can be a physical product like a book or a computer or something your customer can download immediately after buying, like software or e-Books. As the go-between sending customers to your chosen affiliate partner, you make a commission for each and every sale you generate. Any affiliate program worth signing up for won't charge you a single cent for joining; if there is a charge, simply don't bother with it, there's a lot of choice.There are literally hundreds of affiliate programs out there, some are run by companies in-house but the vast majority of businesses, from huge multi-national corporations like airlines or credit card companies to one man bands selling their own eBooks, use specialist affiliate program companies. Probably the most well-known of these is Amazon but to get started we're going to once again take Benwell's advice and start with ClickBank, a company which focuses on info products and software. Signing up is easy, a simple one-page, fill-in-the-blanks thing and you're set. Once signed up, click over to the marketplace and do some basic research on products you might want to sell. There is a very broad range of choices, from Business through to Society & Culture; one good tip I can give you is to focus on something you are already interested in.The key to finding a viable market lies in identifying keyword phrases that get enough search engine results as to indicate there is enough demand to hope to generate enough traffic - and therefore sales - to make your efforts worthwhile and Benwell explains clearly how to conduct this fundamental research.As the Virtual Income series of articles is all about learning how to make money online, for the purposes of this review I've decided to choose some high-paying ClickBank affiliate products in the very competitive field around the basic keyword phrase "how to make money online". There are literally hundreds of this type of product and it can be very difficult to get a high enough profile and therefore enough traffic to your blog to actually make any significant money. If you decide to purchase Blogging To The Bank, currently a $47 downloadable eBook that also comes with a host of free bonus resources, and follow Benwell's techniques, I strongly recommend that you choose a less fiercely competitive area and preferably a subject about which you already have some knowledge.To create your blog, Benwell strongly recommends using your own webhosting account and WordPress. He recommends Yahoo Small Business for their reliability and ease of use, though there are of course many other possibilities. However, for the purposes of this review I'm going to use one of my Google Blogger accounts to set up a demonstration site and just hope that they don't shut it down as a splog!Having set up a blog, the next concern is content. Remember the fourth blogging commandment? Don't let your blog die by failing to keep adding fresh content. This can of course be a real problem for some people who are either unable to write regularly or, like me, are too busy simply keeping their head above water to take on yet another writing responsibility. Fortunately there are several solutions to be found on the web. In addition to writing his own content, Benwell uses a subscription service called PLR Pro, which costs $97 a month for 440 articles in 11 different niche subjects, but there are cheaper options.Benwell lists a variety of sources for either paid freelance or entirely free of charge content and a quick search will turn up those exact same sites, too. Top of the list when I searched were iSnare and Uber Articles and I shall be using content from these and other sources of free content for my demo sites. Benwell's technique is to use a mixture of all the above methods as he is now running a network of literally dozens of blogs.Another crucial issue is optimizing your blog, which means making it look good, easy to read and navigate through, and keeping it search engine-friendly. There is a ton of good advice in Blogging To The Bank, from using distinctive, preferably unique, design to adding RSS Reader icons and, a key point, collecting reader email addresses. He also gives detailed explanations of how to tweak the WordPress code properly for maximum Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit and user friendliness, which I am going to duplicate on Blogger. For reference purposes, the site I have set up on Blogger is How To Make Money Online.Having got your site established, the next thing is to get your site noticed and Benwell details a broad variety of ways to do this, including pinging; article syndication, to facilitate which he includes a free software program with the e-Book which, though fairly basic and in need of an update, is a real time saver; link exchanges; press releases; forums; and getting free or paid links back to your site. Another related major chapter covers newer techniques, generally known as Web 2.0 promotion and traffic generation techniques. Benwell highlights his four top sites in useful "how to" detail, which are Squidoo, Digg, del.icio.us and Technorati.Obviously, really committing to Rob Benwell's Blogging To The Bank techniques is going to take an ongoing commitment of time and modest resources, more than I can give for review purposes here. He claims to be making a six figure income through persistent application and in his ninth and final step explains how and where he finds freelance writers and coders to outsource a lot of the grunt work, leaving him more time to manage his blog empire.He closes by detailing some extra techniques for maximising the income from your site, doing advanced SEO and also offers an affiliate opportunity to promote his e-Book. His last words are probably the most pertinent:The worst thing you can do is put this e-book down and not do anything with the amazing information you've just learnt. So at least do a little research, make a plan of action for yourself over the next week or so and stick to it. Here's to your blogging success.If you are attracted to the idea of blogging your way to financial freedom, this e-book will serve as your guide.

A lifelong fan of Manchester United and a passionate lover of music and science fiction, I live in Antequera in the heart of Southern Spain. In addition to serving here as Comments Editor and Blogcritics Forum Admin/Moderator, I also publish a variety of independent online sites. These currently include a bunch of intermittent blogs covering everything from dieting to robots and, most recently, Eurocritics Magazine. My wife and I also run an affordable luxury villa rental in Spain if you're thinking of a holiday!

Blogcritics Comments - Half A Million Strong!

Christopher Rose — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 09:52:21 EDT

Blogcritics is a unique gestalt of writers, readers, and commenters and today, as we mark the receipt of our 500,000th comment, we celebrate a fabulous landmark of interactivity, real social networking if you like. The core of the Blogcritics culture is obviously made up of the almost 2,000 registered writers who have posted over 62,000 diverse articles here but there is also a large and growing band of unregistered regulars who post comments with a frequency, style, and wit that leaves me wondering why they don't have a blog of their own.Blogcritics comes out of the blogging milieu and having a dialogue, crude or sophisticated, is as natural as breathing. We are not the mainstream media but something far newer, braver, and more aspirational. That requires courage, honesty, and a willingness to tolerate the views of people with whom one may not necessarily agree, rather like modern democracy itself. As with all opinions boldly stated, others also like to offer their views. That can be considered a type of participatory democracy in action and, through the dialectic process, a greater understanding can be gained by all.Blogcritics is all about writing, a skill that is becoming ever more challenged in our fast-paced soundbite world. Unlike most other destinations, virtual or actual, Blogcritics even has its own "writer's academy", where talented but technically challenged pipsqueaks are polished and pointed in the right direction. One of the other distinguishing things about BC, something that makes it very different from old school mainstream media, is that we're all available, contactable, and interactive. We have some great writers and personalities here, both on the editorial side and the vital wider writer community; it's great, thrilling actually, to see them actually interact, through the comments, with our readers. The articles posted on Blogcritics, although complete in themselves, are like the opening remarks in a conversation; sometimes formal, often irreverent, rarely dull.If you want to shoot the schnizzle about your favourite new band, game, TV show, sport or movie or get seriously political over the hot button issues of the day, THIS is the place to come."The comments are what make Blogcritics a community." - Eric Berlin, Executive Producer "Have I said recently how I see comments as the heart or psyche of BC? No? Well, I see the comments as..." - Christopher Rose, Comments Editor"I take comments moderately seriously." - Dave Nalle, Politics EditorI suspect some people round here thought I got the short end of the stick when I accepted the role of Blogcritics' Comments Editor but to my way of thinking I got the better end of the deal. The comments are the heart of BC, a wild, after-the-storm river; wide, deep and dark, glistening with fabulous flotsam and jetsam. I love the way that everybody at Blogcritics is held instantly accountable for their words. Writers, commenters, and editors alike are paraded, praised or pelted with tomatoes as the issues of the day are picked over in thoughtful detail. Great articles can attract equally great derision, praise or worst fate of all, be ignored.I'm always impressed by the depth of passionate feelings and ideas seething through the silicon circuits of Blogcritics, the rich heady blood in our virtual veins if you like. The two sections of Blogcritics that attract the most heated and passionate debate are undoubtedly those normally unlikely bedfellows Music and Politics; in these sections particularly, every exotic strand of human thought is to be found pulsing through the comment stream, from the deranged to the noble.Banter, poetry, and sexual deviation are not found on every page of Blogcritics but are typical of the twists and turns that any thread can take. Many of the star comments on BC are written by people who've been on the site a while and often the comments can be as detailed and passionate as the posts that spawned them. Other times a casual visitor, drawn in by a particular work, leaves a nicely put comment to mark their visit.I am always disappointed when the moment comes that I have to edit or delete comments; the way that is handled is kept under constant review. I've done a lot of editing and even deleting of comments when people have gone too far but I still haven't banned anybody at all. I prefer to try other approaches first and so far it's worked out okay although that doesn't mean I wouldn't ban someone if I was left with no other choice.All in all, Blogcritics is a wonderful space to be in and I look forward to us reaching the one million comments mark in due course. As the physical barriers that separate people become increasingly irrelevant, conversations in spaces such as this may help us bridge some of the ideological and cultural barriers that separate us as well. I think that's a pretty good reason for keeping on. Blogcritics - the website that talks back!

e-Book Review: Ewen Chia's Newbie Cash Machine

Christopher Rose — Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:17:43 EDT

Following on from the Virtual Income series debut, a two part interview with Chris Carpenter, the author of one of the definitive AdWords guides Google Cash, Blogcritics writer Christopher Rose gets his hands dirty learning the ideas in Newbie Cash Machine, one of the many products from one of the most well known internet business pioneers, Singapore based Ewen Chia. Amongst other achievements, Ewen is as famous for his own money-making exploits as he is respected for his desire to help others learn how to earn their own online income through his public speaking appearances and his many informative e-books.Ewen Chia's Newbie Cash Machine is exactly what the title says; an easy to follow, step by step guide, for people with no previous experience, to making money on the internet by focusing on your own strengths and interests. Of course, untold wealth won't come flowing your way by just wanting it. Desire is vitally important but has to be backed up by the willingness to do a little hard work in order to prime the pump and this e-book -- a $27 downloadable PDF -- will show you how to do it.Over the course of over 140 pages, Ewen explains both the big picture context within which this takes place and all the basic principles to using the approach of drawing upon your own interests to become a trusted source of information and expertise and earn money based upon that relationship. As Ewen writes in his introduction, "Earning money online is easy when you understand how to choose the right market, target products for that market and convert prospects into customers... It's really a 1-2-3 process consisting of a product offer, targeted traffic and good sales copy". Lest this all starts to sound too easy, there is also the caveat that you must make a real commitment to learning the lessons, focusing on understanding how it all connects together and of course, actually taking action by implementing a daily action plan.Although there are three types of products that can be offered online - physical goods from cars to clothes; digital products and services like e-books, videos, podcasts and membership sites; and finally intangible monetization models based on internet traffic and advertising, such as our own dear Blogcritics - Chia's approach focuses on the second model, answering people's constant search for helpful and useful information.As he explains, "people use the internet as a research tool prior to making a purchase... This hunger for information is going to be your key to making real money online... by becoming an information provider". It might seem difficult at first to imagine yourself as someone who can provide useful information but almost everybody knows how to do something, home decoration, how to fix a car, lose weight, how to juggle or whatever. People looking to find out how to do things like this will actually pay good money to someone they trust to help them achieve their ambitions or interests. "Your goal is to provide people with information that is truly valuable".If you think this is all a bit ambitious to start with, it is also possible to make money and easier to get started by acting as a middleman or affiliate, placing yourself between potential buyers and the actual sellers of information products and Ewen explains how to go about that in just enough detail. He explains the definition of affiliate marketing, how and why it all works, which companies to sign-up with, the required skills and tools - and, crucially, how to acquire and implement those skills and tools.Pre-selling is one of the key techniques to getting a prospect warmed up and ready to buy before you actually present them with an opportunity to do so. If you are selling your own information directly, you need to build a relationship of trust in yourself as someone who knows what they are talking about. If you are acting as an affiliate, you would focus on getting the prospects to trust your judgement in recommending someone else's products, such as by writing a series of reviews. The very article you are reading right now is in fact an act of pre-selling as by accepting my recommendation of Ewen's e-book, you are more likely to buy it. Rest assured though that there is no affiliate offer in this honest and objective review, although Ewen does indeed offer that possibility!Having explained the context within which we newbies will operate, the author then goes on to spell out, in a detailed but easy to follow ten step process, exactly how to go about it. These steps include how to find a hot market to target: how to find three profitable affiliate programmes in your market; how to set up a website and email auto-response system; how to get a constant stream of traffic; and, most importantly, how to build a quality relationship with your site's visitors.Ewen concludes by spelling out the importance of consistency and sticking with it. There is no point at all in investing time and money in this process if you're not prepared to stick with it but if you do, a constant stream of money can come your way for only a few hours work each week. Of course, once having got the hang of it, it's increasingly easy to repeat the process in a different market sector or introduce your own information product for even higher profitability.There are a few minor points that Ewen doesn't get completely right, such as not taking into account how seriously the search engines mark down duplicate content articles and, in his otherwise fine explanation of using Google Adsense, he uses an example that wouldn't actually get any traffic for your site but these don't seriously devalue the usefulness of his techniques.If there is a particular subject you're really interested in and either a pre-existing product exists you can sell as an affiliate or, even better, an original report or other product you can create yourself, Ewen Chia's Newbie Cash Machine system is as clear and useful a guide to how you can earn money online through your own natural interests as you can find.

Interview: Google Cash Detective Chris Carpenter, Part 2

Christopher Rose — Tue, 3 Jul 2007 07:23:41 EDT

In a new series of articles comprising interviews, product reviews and actual progress reports based on his own efforts and experiences trying to generate a real virtual income, Blogcritics writer Christopher Rose starts to explore the true potential, the good guys, the liars and the charlatans of the online moneymaking webiverse. From affiliate marketing to making and selling your own digital or physical products, Christopher is going to put his life and his own personal future on the line to tell the truth and report on the best and the worst online marketing people and products out there. The following is Part 2 of an interview with one of the more interesting people out there, one Chris Carpenter, a young American who has gone from working as a waiter in Salt Lake City to living his fantasy beach bum freestyle life in Mexico through his clever take on using Google Adwords. His first product was the highly respected and reasonably priced Google Cash e-book, which came out about four years ago and his latest product is the rather more expensive and just a little bit controversial Google Cash Detective, which draws upon the work of his e-book and makes the whole process easier to implement.I understand you've now brought out something new, the Google Cash Detective. What does this do and how is it different to Google Cash? The Google Cash Detective is software that monitors keywords and identifies profitable Adwords campaigns. It’s completely automated! All you do is enter the keywords into the software, and it monitors them for you. The Google Cash Detective shows you the Adwords ad, the Display URL and the Destination URL for every keyword you enter. It queries Google daily or hourly (depending on what you choose) and will show you the range of daily clicks, the range of CPC for these clicks, the number of variations of the ad copy, the status of the ad and much more! You enter a niche keyword list into the software, and it starts monitoring. Then a few days later you can see which keywords are consistently displaying ads for certain merchants. The longer you monitor your niche with the Google Cash Detective, the more certainty you will have as to which ads are profitable and which ads are not. The Google Cash Detective works continuously to monitor campaigns placed for your keywords. At a glance you can see what ads have been running everyday for several days – those ads are likely to be the profitable ones. On the other hand, when you see keyword/merchant/ad copy combinations that have run for only a few days out of the last month - those ads are likely to be the unprofitable ones. These ads were run, lost money and then disappeared. The Google Cash Detective also identifies which Adwords ads use affiliate links. So it’s easy to find profitable affiliate campaigns to replicate and immediately profit from. The Google Cash Detective is a competitive intelligence software that sifts through the thousands of Adwords ads and identifies persistent affiliate campaigns. Effectively, the software stakes out successful affiliate marketers and shows you the merchant, keyword, and ad formula combination that they are using. So you use the Google Cash Detective with the Google Cash System. Instead of setting up Adwords Campaigns promoting affiliate products through trial and error, you can save time and money by using the Detective to find profitable Adwords ads. Then you can mimic those campaigns and try to improve on them. One method that has been working really well for me is finding profitable "Google Cash" campaigns in Adwords with the Google Cash Detective and then replicating them on Microsoft AdCenter. There is much less competition on AdCenter and you still get a lot of traffic at a low cost. You also practice and teach yoga. When did that start and what type of yoga do you practice? I don’t actually teach yoga. I only practice yoga. My wife teaches hatha yoga. We have a yoga retreat here in Mexico and we bring in teachers from all over the world to do week long "intensives". I started about two years ago. I have had chronic lower back problems since I was 16 years old. Every two or three months I would have spasms that kept me in bed for a few days. I lived in constant fear of "throwing out" my back. It was horrible! I started doing yoga therapeutically to help my back pain. Since I started two years ago, I have been practicing regularly and my lower back problem has completely vanished. I do much more active sports now than I ever did and still I am pain free. I attribute it 100% to the yoga. Every morning I wake up and do my little morning routine. In the afternoon I do the more formal class which lasts about one and a half hours. When I first started practicing yoga I thought it was just about the stretching and I was doing it only to heal my back. Since then I have learned that it is much more than just the exercises. There is a whole spiritual side to it as well. Since I started meditating a little each day and consistently doing the breathing exercises I have become much more relaxed and stress free. I used to have quite a temper issue, yelling and raising my voice often, even being downright abusive at times. But for the last year and a half since I have been meditating regularly I have completely lost the anger. Situations that used to throw me into a rage just dissolve when they come into contact with me now. It’s pretty amazing actually. Before this transformation happened with me, I wouldn't have believed it to be possible. I always thought that people can’t change like that. But they can. Not only have I seen a big change in myself since I started yoga, I have seen the same metamorphosis in my friends who have been practicing yoga as well. You now seem to live on the beach in Puerto Escondido most of the time. Is that one of the fruits of your success or would you be doing that regardless of your Internet activity? I wanted to live at a surf spot for a long time. But the problem with that is that at most surf spots there is not a lot of work to be had. Once I figured out how to make money online, I quickly moved to the surf. What would you say to the many millions of people who dream of quitting their day jobs and earning a good living online? It often seems very difficult, almost overwhelming in fact, to tell which of the thousands of marketing "gurus" out there are worth believing and which just want to get your money and give you a bunch of recycled rubbish. How can wannabes like me tell who the good guys are? I would say that it is very possible to earn a good living online. I did it and am doing it. I have no special skills or background. I didn't graduate college. I worked at nights in bars and restaurants so I could play during the days. I’m not the only one working online and living this Internet Lifestyle either. There are lots of people that have figured this out and have awakened from the slave-like sleeping state of working a 9-to-5 till you're 65 JOB (Just Over Broke). We've been told all of our lives that we need to get a job and work for a living. Work hard now and then if you’re lucky when you’re 60 or 65 you can live. Those are our beliefs. Guess what? That’s B.S. The time to live is now, not later. A paradigm shift is taking place and people are waking up and living their dream lifestyles now. Today, right now, this instant. This is your wake up call! You too can live your dream lifestyle. Here’s how: First, figure out what you really want to do, what you want to be. Figure out your dream lifestyle. I shared my dream lifestyle with you - adventure, travel, etc. What’s yours? If you had no constraints, what would you do? Oh, by the way, having a family is not a constraint. I take my family with me on all of our adventures. Get a pad of paper and start brainstorming. If you had 100 million dollars in the bank, what would you do with your time? Don’t figure out what you want to have. Having things just to have things is not important. Figure out what you want to do. And only acquire things that help you do those things. Really give this some thought and think about your passions. What do you live for? You can’t just want to quit your job. You have to have a vision, a passion. You can’t say I hate my job so I want to set up an online business instead. It has to be that you hate your job and you want to set up an online business to free yourself so you can do the things that you love. The things that you are passionate about. That’s what you need to figure out – what that is. So the first step is getting clear on what you want to do in your life. The next step is to look at your list and figure out how much money you need to earn to be able to do those things. That’s your Strategic Objective. For me, I figured I needed $10,000 a month of profits to support my dream lifestyle. Go through your list of things you want to do and figure out how much you would need to earn a month to be able to do those things and still have a little left over to save and invest. The third step is that you need to identify your limiting beliefs and get rid of them. We've been raised to believe that work is hard. That you need to grow up and get a job and work from 9 to 5 until you're 65. We've been raised to believe that work is something you do daily, that people that don’t work are lazy bums. Make a list of all of your beliefs concerning work. We also have ingrained in us limiting beliefs about money. Beliefs that it is noble to be poor. That rich people are jerks and that if you are rich it is at someone else's expense. Look at all of the little sayings regarding money: "Money doesn't grow on trees." "We’re not the Rockefellers." I bet you can think of several more. Make a list of all of your beliefs concerning money. Ultimately it comes down to beliefs. The only thing preventing you from living your dream lifestyle is believing that it can be done. Once you have your limiting beliefs out in the open, you’ll be able to see them throughout your day as you deal with work and money. Just by noticing them, that is the first step to getting rid of them. Your next step is to start building your Automated Online Business. You start by working on it yourself. And little by little you systematize your work and outsource it so a specialist works on it. Then you work on your business and not in it.In my opinion the easiest way to set up a profitable automated online business is to find one in a niche that you are interested in. Then you reverse engineer their business model and try to improve on it. This is where the Google Cash Detective comes into play. It helps you identify with 100% accuracy profitable online businesses that get their traffic from PPC. And it shows you which keywords and which ads are profitable for them. You really need to read my special free report Google Cash Strikes Back where I explain the above concept in much more detail. Read Part 1 of the Chris Carpenter interview.

Interview: Google Cash Detective Chris Carpenter

Christopher Rose — Mon, 2 Jul 2007 07:54:23 EDT

In a new series of articles comprising interviews, product reviews, and actual progress reports based on his own efforts and experiences trying to generate a genuine virtual income, Blogcritics writer Christopher Rose starts to explore the true potential, the good guys, the liars, and the charlatans of the online moneymaking webiverse. From affiliate marketing to making and selling your own digital or physical products, Christopher is going to put his life and his own personal future on the line to tell the truth and report on the best and the worst online marketing people and products out there.To launch the series, Christopher presents the first half of a two-part interview with one of the more interesting people out there, one Chris Carpenter, a young American who has gone from working as a waiter in Salt Lake City to living his fantasy beach bum freestyle life in Mexico through his clever take on using Google Adwords. His first product was the highly respected and reasonably priced Google Cash e-book, which came out about four years ago, and his latest product is the rather more expensive and just a little bit controversial Google Cash Detective, which draws upon the work of his e-book and makes the whole process easier to implement.Tell us about your background. Where are you from and what did you do before getting into the virtual income lifestyle?I grew up all over the world. My father was a diplomat in the Foreign Service. We moved from country to country every three years or so.I've always enjoyed the outdoors and have been an adventure nut since I was a child. I worked all sorts of temporary jobs and night jobs to try to keep my days free so I could do my adventure activities like skiing and surfing and mountain biking, etc.As an adult I lived in Salt Lake City Utah at the base of the Cottonwood Canyons, working night jobs so I could ski during the days. I worked as a waiter, as a bus boy, as a bartender, all sorts of service jobs. The good thing about the service jobs is that it frees up your days for skiing and mountain biking, etc.When and why did you start to look to the web as a way of earning a living?The downside to working night jobs is that the pay is quite dismal, and you’re still stuck to one area since you have to show up to work after your ski day. So you don’t have a lot of money and time to travel to other ski areas. This for me was still much better than the alternative of working a 9-to-5 JOB, but as I mentioned, you’re still stuck. You’re barely eking by with money and you can’t do much adventure traveling since you have to go to work and you have limited funds.That’s how it was for me five years ago. I was happy. I was doing what I loved. I worked so I could do what I loved: skiing, biking, kayaking, climbing, etc. But I felt stuck -- no money, no time off from work. And I really wanted to travel the world going on adventures and doing the things I love. I wanted to go helicopter skiing in Alaska, surfing in Fiji and other places.Those things are expensive though. So I got a real job and worked like crazy. I commuted over 45 minutes each way to work, and sat in a cubicle in front of a computer five days a week. I was only able to go skiing on the weekends. I became a “Weekend Warrior”. The idea was to work hard for few years and save up money and then go on a bunch of big trips. After almost a year of working like a dog and neglecting my passions – I managed to save a whopping $0. Yup, in fact I was $11,000 in credit card debt. Now I couldn't quit my job even if I wanted to, because I had to work to pay my bills and my debt. I was stuck in the rat race. And I was miserable.I decided then and there that I was going to dedicate myself to finding the answer. How can I live my dream lifestyle of traveling the world and going on adventures? I searched and searched. Is it being a writer, or a photographer, or some sort of an adventure guide? Nothing I came up with satisfied the criteria of no time constraints, no money constraints, ultimate flexibility, and no geography constraints. I had pretty much given up and settled on the fact that I was going to be a 9-to-5 slave or work in a restaurant at nights so I could play during the days.I had a breakdown and then in the midst of my breakdown – I had an epiphany. In my epiphany I saw how the Internet disseminates information. And I realized that whoever helps the information reach the person looking for it quickly and accurately and gives them exactly what they are looking for – can make money from that. So I started setting up an online business.For the first month I worked 15+ hour days on it. By the second month I earned $30,000 of profits, still working 15 hour days. Then in the third month I systematized my business and automated the systems and outsourced most of the work. From month four until today, four years later, I've been earning lots of profits a month all the while only working around five hours a week. Since I systematized and outsourced the work, now I work on the business and not in it. I work on the 10% that produces the 90% of the profits. Also since it is an online business, it lives entirely on the Internet. There is no physical store. I can work from anywhere, all I need is an Internet connection. That’s the main reason I looked into working online – for ultimate freedom.You're obviously quite well known in the world of Internet marketing for your Google Cash e-book. Can you tell us a bit about that book and what it teaches people?The Google Cash Method is simple: You place an affiliate link for a product or pay-per-lead offer in the destination URL of an Adwords ad. Then, you bid on keywords related to that product or service. When someone clicks through your ad and purchases or signs up, you earn commissions. If you earn more commissions than you spend on your Adwords ads, then you’re profitable. If you spend more on Adwords ads than you earn in commissions, then you are losing money. In Part 2 of this interview we learn about the Google Cash Detective, the benefits yoga can bring, and the four steps to freedom.

Book Review: Build Your Own Website The Right Way Using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd

Christopher Rose — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 16:47:05 EDT

The broad global acceptance of the World Wide Web and the potential it offers each and every one of us, whether you want a simple personal site or a richly featured professional site, has been truly empowering on a global scale. Unfortunately, one of the unwanted side effects of such a powerful but still primitive technology has been to transform the role of nerd from spotty-oik-at-the-back-of-the-class to something approaching a scary cross between car mechanic and superjock. This is because most software, whether open source like WordPress or proprietary like Microsoft, is about as user-friendly as Spanish verbs or calculus. There is now a new hope in the shape of this useful and easy-to-read book. Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS walks the willing student, be they dilettante dabbler or serious wannabe, through an easy sequence of steps, using nothing more complex than a basic text editor, that build up into a set of practical site construction skills. This book may well shift the balance of power back towards us "normal" folk!As you may well already know, necessity is the mother of invention and, despite lacking any formal computer training, I decided last year to find interesting ways to supplement my income by using the web. Having the desire is one thing but the ability to make it happen is quite another and without some grasp of the basic techniques of website construction, no new Internet-based business can ever get off the ground. The options come down to these: 1) find a nerdy partner, 2) pay a freelancer, or 3) do it yourself. A combination of lack of said nerd and funds allied with a bloody-minded streak a mile wide have led me steadily if reluctantly to the self-help option. This book makes that possible, even for an anti-geek like me. This book is so good, so well-written and helpful that I'm hoping the day when I never have to suffer using poor or downright incompetent technical support or beg favours off nerdian friends again has come into view!Experienced webmasters too may be surprised to find there is much to be learned from this book, particularly given the author's view that "Web developers the world over have learnt bad habits... they often produce pages that are inflexible, slow to download and difficult to maintain, but like a badly taught driver... many developers find these outdated habits difficult to break... In this book you'll learn the right way to do things."The right way of doing things is a full, easy-to-understand set of exercises covering how to build a site using HyperText Markup Language (HTML is the basic code or language used to build a website) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS is a language used in conjunction with HTML and helps your site look better).Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way is a hands-on guide that does exactly what it says on the cover. It's not a detailed design guide but rather focuses on the basic techniques that anybody who's not afraid of a little bit of hard work can acquire without too much distress. Written by Ian Lloyd and published in the USA by Australian company SitePoint, this book is a great example of the international nature of the interweb and you can even download the first four chapters for free or get further advice and support through the SitePoint Forums.

Blogcritics Comments of the Week 3

Christopher Rose — Sun, 8 Jan 2006 15:04:08 EST

... ONE of the distinguishing things about Blogcritics, something that makes it very different to old school mainstream media, is that we're all available, contactable and interactive. We have some great writers and personalities here, both on the editorial side and the vital wider writer community; it's great, thrilling actually, to see them actually interact, through the Comments, with our readers.The articles posted on BC, although complete in themselves, are like the opening remarks in a conversation; sometimes formal, often irreverent, rarely dull. If you want to shoot the schnizzle about your favourite new band, game, TV show, sport and movie or get seriously political over the hot button issues of the day, THIS is the place to come. "The comments are what make Blogcritics a community." Eric Berlin ... "Have I said recently how I see comments as kind of the heart or psyche of BC? No? Well, I see the comments as..." Christopher Rose ... "I take comments moderately seriously" Dave Nalle ... ______________ As an immigrant, there are always many little adjustments to be made, some obvious like language or money, some unexpected and unforeseen. Making my new life here in Southern Spain has forced me to shed a lot of old skin and learn just how arbitrary are the seemingly natural ways of things. One timely example, this Monday 12th December 2005, with just twelve days til Christmas Eve (or Noche Buena, "Good Night" as they call it here) is the giving of gifts, which in Catholic Spain doesn't happen until the 6th of January, the twelfth day of Christmas!The Comment of the Day for today is from our own Matthew T. Sussman, who added the following Comment #15 to the Why Happy Holidays Is a More Respectful Greeting Opinion piece penned by Purple Tigress, who prowls the streets of Hollywood.Political correctness is a very sincere intention. It's trying to suck any possible connotation that would offend somebody.But should the standard of PCness be "offend as few people as possible?"Because in 10 years, will "Happy Holidays" be offensive to atheists like Michael Newdow who celebrate nothing in December?So will our PC phrase then be "Happy December?"But maybe that will be offensive to sadists and machochists who dont' want to happy, they feel pain.So maybe our PC phrase will become "Have an enjoyable December?"But maybe there's a group of people who don't like December.So maybe our PC phrase becomes "Have an enjoyable month, whichever you choose?"Do you see how these syllables keep numbing the intent of the message? All because we didn't want to offend anyone.George Carlin had an amazing piece about PCness. One example he used was "shell shock," a condition where soldiers buckled under too much pressure. Two syllables.Then it became "battle fatigue." Two words, four syllables.Then it was "operational exhaustion." Two words, eight syllables.Now it's "post-traumatic stress disorder." Four words, eight syllables.We keep adding syllables to the same concept, wasting time to describe "shell shock."Now, you asked me if I want to revert to a discriminatory society. Of course I don't. I'm not a racist. People deserve equal treatment.Equal treatment. That's important.But political correctness is mutually exclusive from equality. PCness is simply a ruse to avoid awkward conversation from those different than you. And frankly it's a waste of my time and yours.I learn nothing about you if I say "Happy holidays," "Enjoy your time off," "Have a good winter break" or "Seasons greetings."But if I saw Purple Tigress on the street and said "Hey, Merry Christmas Purple Tigress!" Would you be offended and leave it at that, or would you correct me and say "Oh, I don't celebrate Christmas."Suss: "Oh, what do you celebrate?"PT: "Well, I'm Jewish, so I celebrate Hanukkah."Suss: "Well then Happy Hanukkah."Not only did I learn more about you, but I have a conversation starter for you next time.Now, you do make a point saying that people give you a weird look. Obviously that's a reaction thinking that everyone celebrates Christmas (which they don't) and as they progress in life they'll come to realize that people celebrate all kinds of things. But simply pumping vanilla into a December time greeting doesn't cure the cancer, it just puts layers upon layers of gauze over the problem._________________ BlogCritics is all about writing, a skill that is becoming ever more challenged in our fastpaced soundbite world. Unlike most other destinations, virtual or actual, BlogCritics even has it's own writer's academy where talented but technically challenged pipsqueeks are polished and pointed in the right direction.In addition to and in support of that, there are posts about writing on site and my good virtual buddy Alisha Karabinus, a fine writer despite her dubious musical taste, recently wrote an excellently informative and entertaining post Want To Write? Toughen Up!, which drew this Comment of the Day for Tuesday 13th December 2005 from our man in Mexico, alpha, as Comment #3:-Too true. All of it, Alisha. Writing is bad, photography worse. Everyone pulls it apart, adds their 2 pesos worth or, on the internet, can be as mean as they care to be.I, too, happily had one of those professors (a night class at a lousy, Southern university in which I wasted two years) who made one really great impression: you cannot write unless you can allow your audience into your thoughts and feelings.You tell a great story about how to write and why one writes and how important it is to slough off the barbs that come along while waiting for the occasional perceptive comment or beam of understanding.I only wish I had learned the lessons you teach a great deal earlier.I believe that makes alpha the second person to be awarded two Comments of the Day. Congratulations.___________________ I am always disappointed when the moment comes that I have to edit or delete comments and the way that is handled is kept under constant review. This reluctance to act hasn't prevented a couple of complaints over in that rowdy basement hangout known as Blogcritics.org Politics, but so far the article here in Blogcritics.org Culture that has generated the Comment of the Day for Wednesday 14th December, Women and Sexuality: Let's Talk About Sex by recent recruit to the volunteer BlogCritics editorial team Erin McMaster, has only had one comment deleted. I'm not sure if I'm more pleased or surprised.Moving on, the wise words that caught my eye today belong to one diana hartman, a Kansan girl currently in Germany with her Marine husband. Without further ado, I give you Comment #17:men and women discuss many things by a different set of rules, not just sex...it's a difference between them, not a bad thing for either...i don't know too many reputable men who will bring the depth of their lover's vagina to a round of drinks but i've sat at many a table 'o coffee where the women were discussing girth, length, and a myriad of other details...we woman share information -- it's probably borne out of the evolutionary need to protect each other and preserve our own safety, i don't know... i've chosen a few lovers over others because of information i got from my girlfriends and didn't squirm at the heads-up because no one likes to be surprised by super-long, super-short, or small body livestock... the depth of women's conversations have long shocked many of the men i've known and i think that's because men prefer to stick with the surface issues...the rest is too close to what many men perceive as weak and vulnerable...if you're discussing a particular man's ability to help with orgasm, it's a good bet many many many feeling words are already on the table -- and most men aren't up for or into that...it's kind of funny that what erin is suggesting is still taboo for some is the same thing others are suggesting is bad manners...if you're not the kind of person to go in depth, pardon the pun, then good on you, but don't make the mistake of thinking that those who will discuss it are doing something wrong...it's been my experience that, and i don't say this as a rule, women who don't like to discuss things in detail weren't taught that it was okay to do so...perhaps they were taught instead to attach some level of shame to it -- and themselves...for the record, shame does not equate with modesty...the latter is a form of discretion whereas the former is a form of secrecy...sex is no secret...guys that don't like how detailed women get are really something -- this, from some of the same people whose gender group takes a great deal of pride in things like the volume of their belching, the length they can spit, and how much under-the-covers offense they can create with their own gas...i can spit a goodly length but not being 11 yrs old anymore has done wonders for my topics of conversation...i'll take a lively round of oral sex tips over who can chug a beer the fastest any day of the week...I don't know why ms hartman loves the lower case so much but am happy to follow her convention._______________________________ Well, it's only Thursday and so far this week we've already highlighted comments made to posts about Christmas, Writing and Sex. Now it's the turn of that hot button issue, the Death Penalty in the USA.The In The Middle series of articles showcase the real art of political debate, as two people with more or less diametrically opposed views have at it, with intelligence, restraint and even wit! Comment of the Day for Thursday 15th December 2005 came from the wise keys of Chantal Stone as Comment #14 on the latest Phillip Winn - Eric Berlin face off In The Middle: The Death Penalty.I think Eric made the best point when he said:"I believe that legally sanctioned executions send a poor message to ourselves and to the world about what we strive to be as a civilized people."That's it right there. There is no room for the death penalty in a so-called civilized society. How far have we really come if we still kill criminals? There are better solutions (hard-labor, alternative ways of rehabilitation) out there, we just need the courage to execute (no pun intended) them.Ms Stone becomes the first casual visitor, as opposed to blogger, to contribute two Comments of the Day. Congratulations Chantal. If you are interested in writing more than comments for BlogCritics, Chantal, send me a message via editoratlarge [at] gmail [dot] com. ____________________________ Most of the time the comments to a particular post follow a predictable pattern before, as all conversations do, coming to a natural end. Sometimes however, comment threads take on an unnatural life all their own and today we look at one such.Back in May 2003, one of the most senior and possibly sinister members of the BlogCritics "cabal", my part-time musical guru (by which I mean he's right part of the time, lol), the one and only Al Barger, wrote a brief - though of course perfectly formed - five paragraph piece on The Miracle of Fatima, the widely, if inconclusively, recorded events experienced by large crowds of people at Fatima, Portugal in 1917.This modest article didn't attract a single comment for over five months and didn't get it's fifth until September this year. By the end of November there were only twenty-five and now BOOM! over four hundred and counting.The vast majority of these have flowed from the keys of the self-professed re-animated mother of Jesus Christ, Mary reborn literally who, if nothing else, has displayed a persistent, if complex, vision encompassing everything from her family life, the events of Fatima, repeated copyright theft and the perils facing the world today.For the second time ever, the Comment of the Day award this Friday 16th December 2005 goes to someone commenting on their own article, as Mr Barger chipped in with this as Comment #425:- I want to thank the mother of Jesus for honoring my humble little column with her holy prophesy and analysis. Besides the holy nature of it, these comments are a pretty fair little literary souffle.Thank you, Mary Reborn Literally, your work is appreciated. ______________________________ Another revered and ancient post, this one from August 2002, is The Many Lives of Les Paul by Ed Driscoll. A former East Coast guy, Ed went west in the late 90s and writes on technology and music.Over three years after being written, this affectionate Les Paul post generated the following charming story as Comment #73 from one Eldon Lee Jr., in their one and only visit to BlogCritics. I wonder if he'll ever know it was Comment of the Day for Saturday 17th December 2005? From talking to my dad, prior to the 30's, Les Paul would perform with groups near his Waukesha WI home with his guitar and banjo. Banjo you say? I was told he played the banjo because it was louder and could be heard in a dance band. Maybe that lead to his development of the electric guitar. My dad was a trumpet player and always enjoyed it when Les Paul would come to Michigan / Indiana to play with them as a guest artist. Then they could sit and talk music at the breaks. My dad died in April 2005 at the age of 97 still talking about his enjoyment of Les Paul the musician and the person. Eldon Lee Jr. __________________________Having covered correct Christmas protocol, the Art of Writing, Sex, the Death Penalty, the Miracle of Fatima and Les Paul in the course of the week, so I thought we'd round things off with a little TV. One of the highlights was the finale of the Donald Trump hosted The Apprentice, which kept the controversy and excitement going well after the end of the series. Personally, I think the winner did the right thing; after putting up with a lot of bs, he deserved his fleeting glory.Not everone agrees of course but South Carolina's Rodney Welch certainly does, and picks up the coveted Comment of the Day for Sunday 18th December 2005 for these words added as Comment #22 to young New Yorker Chris Evans' controversial Randal Pinkett Shocks and Appalls In Apprentice 4 FinaleEric, I guess I just have a different take on it than you. I think Randall's choice is better than the options you offer, and i think by sticking to his guns what it revealed about him wasn't something chicanerous or underhanded or sneaky. In fact, the more I think about it the more ethical Randall's decision seems, and the more right. I would have had much less respect for him if he had caved under spotlight pressure and shared the victory he fought for with Rebecca. He had the King Kong-sized balls to do the right thing and risk looking like a jerk.___________________________

Blogcritics Comments of the Week 5

Christopher Rose — Mon, 2 Jan 2006 21:55:02 EST

ONE of the distinguishing things about Blogcritics, something that makes it very different from old school mainstream media, is that we're all available, contactable and interactive.We have some great writers and personalities here, both on the editorial side and the vital wider writer community; it's great, thrilling actually, to see them interact, through the Comments, with our readers.The articles posted on BC, although complete in themselves, are like the opening remarks in a conversation; sometimes formal, often irreverent, rarely dull.If you want to shoot the schnizzle about your favourite new band, game, TV show, sport and movie or get seriously political over the hot button issues of the day, THIS is the place to come."The comments are what make Blogcritics a community." Eric Berlin"Have I said recently how I see comments as kind of the heart or psyche of BC? No? Well, I see the comments as..." Christopher Rose"I take comments moderately seriously." Dave Nalle___________________________________________________________________________ Just when you're starting to think some BC internet phenomenon like the Pretty Ricky post and it's bloated yet repetitive comment chain is fading away, another Blogcritic gives the embers a stir and sparks new life into the beast. The latest feature on the teen love sensations takes a rather different line, going for a straightforward critical mauling in Bluestars by Pretty Ricky - Worst Album of the Year by Al Barger. For reasons that escape me, the conversation has evolved into a peculiarly uneven dialogue between the kids squealing shrilly about who exactly is Pleasure's boo on the one hand and some of the BC regulars on the other.With Christmas barely behind us and the end of 2005 appearing faster than a polaroid picture, the Comment of the Day for Monday 26th December 2005 comes from one exchange between the belligerent yet romantic "Trey" and our own gonzo marx, which gave us the following as Comment #53. well Trey, about this "gangsta" biti'm from the Jersey Shore myself...representing Asbury Park, a "playah" from back in the crack wars of the 80's...got my Respect from all the street, including the 5 percenters who called me "Viking"so spare me the wanna be little kid shit about "gangsta" cuz my graveyard is bigger than your 'hoodsho, how about you try not telling folks what to do, you want to express yourself..go for itbut you will go a lot farther if you look at the Topic of the Thread, and state your case for your Position...one way or the otheroh yes, me?...get mad? not hardly, i'm still playing, and being quite nice about it since you all are just kids that don't know any betterso how about we try and discuss what the Thread is about?i am gathering that you don't agree with big Al about this CD...so tell us why you think the disk is good, rather than doing the juvvy wanna be bullshit, and we can discuss it on the merits of the material itselfyou down with that or scared to do the dozens in the mental Arena on the subject of Music?(somebody get Suss some munchies, while i school the kiddies)Excelsior! ___________________________________________________________________________ "The kiddies", as gonzo called them, struck back the very next day with 17-year old Brie creaming Mr Barger with her Comment #78, this distinctly uncheesy Comment of the Day for Tuesday 27th December 2005Al: I read your article and I have to say that you pose a few good points. I'm glad that you admitted that you were a 43 year old white male and even said "what do I know about what makes a good r&b boy band?" I think that was very humble of you.I have to say though, I am neutral to what you brought out in your statements. I am a fan of Pretty Ricky although I think that some of thier songs can be offensive. (then why tha heck do I listen to them? i dont know!) I even think that music is deteriorating as I write this message. BUT I think that it's wrong for you to attack a boy band.I mean, do you really have that much time in the world to listen to a group of 17 year olds sing about sex and then write about how bad of group you think they are? Are you really trying to pull that cheap stunt to draw attention to yourself and create a link for the angry teens to go to? (I hate to feed your ego and reply to what you wrote, but I just couldnt help myself). I think you should just let them be a bad group. (since you think that way). Why does that bother you so much? Why waste your time and get your blood pressure all up just because you dont like a boy band?I also think that these statements you made: "yunguns who might give you a good cussin" and "I ain't feeling all that especially brave, though. I ain't scared of some herd of illiterate teenagers. What are they going to do, street slang me to death?" were wrong. I am highly offended! I mean, after reading an article that was so well written and argued, I would think you were a much better person than that. Obviously im wrong.I'm telling you, I'm sevenTEEN years old. And just because I have that "teen" on the end of my age doesn't mean I'm illiterate. Obviously the teens who read your article arent illiterate either if they were able to read your messages and thoughts. Do you feel that I'm "street slanging" you to death? I dont think so. And is that a racist statement? That all these Black teens are just going to "street slang" you until you die? Hmmm... I wonder...Anyway, I'm glad that you felt (I dont want to say brave, but i will) brave enough to put something like this on the internet and then face the replies people sent you because youre right, it is only so much "illiterate teenagers" can do. We cant do anything to you that will hurt you. All we can do is write to you. I just think that you should've handled the way you worded how you felt differently.Another thing, I do have to disagree with what you said about good music being for everybody because different music attracts different people. For instance, I like r and b, hip hop, alternative, and country music. I can pretty much listen to anything except for heavy metal. My father, on the other hand (who is like 50 something) HATES almost EVERYTHING I listen to. What I listen to may not be considered good music to him. He likes jazz and oldies. Jazz and oldies may not be "for me". Jazz and oldies may be considered "good music" to my father, but I dont like it all that much. R and b, hip hop, alternative and the other types of music I choose to listen to is considered "good music" to me, but not for my father, you see what I mean?I understand what you said when you said that you love music and thats why you're saying that you have a dim view of Pretty Ricky because they're a crappy excuse for music. But essentially, is that really your decision to make? They're out now. They're performing songs at concerts and making money. What can you do? AND how can you even say that theyre a crappy excuse for music when you even admitted yourself that you didnt even know what makes a good boy band!?A lot of the things you said on this blog is really offensive. You may not care, but, I'm still putting my feelings out there because I can. When I read your article I thought you were smarter than some of the replies that you wrote to other peoples comments. I was really suprised. Obviously, I was wrong about my preconcieved thoughts of you. I honestly don't know you and I shouldnt have thought a certain way about you just because of how you wrote the article. I was wrong there. But coming from a writer, next time I think you should think before replying to what people write to you. And really, you shouldnt categorize a certain group of people based on age. *(and i learned that i shouldnt categorize a person based on how well they write or argue a point)* ; )Thanks for reading my LOOOOONG reply...if you do. (heck, if anybody does! LOL) ___________________________________________________________________________Shifting musical gears somewhat, one of our busiest music writers is the cryptically named uao, who's produced over 100 never dull posts for Blogcritics in under two years. One of his latest fine reads, Does Your CD Lose Its Value By The Bedpost Overnight? would not only make the title of a great Country song but has already produced the Comment of the Day for Wednesday 28th December 2005, Comment #6 from one J P Spencer.Great article, uao!The thing about the Deadhead stuff retaining high value due to demand justifies what I have been telling friends for ten years. Record labels make the real money on back catalog sales. Note the lack of a reissue of Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer currently on the market.And the PUNCH LINE is, most artists who would generate back catalog sales are currently being dropped by the major labels faster than you can blink. As the Deadheads die off, and that day is coming sooner than you think, the old model of a record company will probably die off with them. ___________________________________________________________________________