Imagine the internet you have now is being controlled by corporations that feed you with limited information they have selected, and charge you for it. If you are a website owner (or a blogger), you have to pay a sum of money to maintain smooth connection to your website. If you do not pay the premium, you will be put on the “Internet bus lane”. That is a world without Net Neutrality.

Actually, Net Neutrality is an individual thing, sort of like our rights on the internet to voice our opinions and to choose anything we would like to see/read on the internet. However, there are some corporations who would love to strip us off our rights and be in control of what we see and charge us for it.

Losing both our freedom and our hard earned money, if you can realize the logic here, it is nothing near to a win-win situation for us.

A country without Net Neutrality is China; any websites with unregulated content are blocked by their “Great Firewall of China”. I must say it sounds better than The Great Wall of China and it definitely helped the government to silence their citizens,  which is comparable to having ultimate authority over the slaves in the olden days (just minus the abuse and pain).

That is a serious violation of human rights. Do you want your country to be like that?

The only logical reason that we can accept grudgingly is that China eliminated Net Neutrality in the name of muting protests and riots, which is acceptable to a certain amount of degree. While for the US (and possibly the whole world after a period of time), they are doing it for the profitability of their corporation.

The internet has always been a Blue Ocean that encourages innovation and creativity into the market. If the government truly cares about innovation and creativity amongst their citizens, they would do anything to support Net Neutrality. Otherwise, the government just does not give a shit about their citizens.

To sum this article up, I will say that Net Neutrality is extremely crucial to any nation that promotes intelligence. The nation that supports Net Neutrality would prosper indefinitely due to the immense knowledge available on the internet. Any nation that destroys Net Neutrality first would breed a population that can be perfectly described by a mandarin idiom, “frogs in a well”, which is basically a metaphor for uninformed and dumbed down citizens.

Tell me what you think about Net Neutrality. If you truly see the importance of Net Neutrality, help spread the importance of it to everyone you know.

With the growing trend of internet socializing, it is no doubt that Facebook is one of the “must-haves” for people of all ages to keep in touch with friends and families who are miles apart. However, as futile applications start to blossom within Facebook, paired with some of the attention seeking nature of human being, socializing in Facebook has become not as fun as before.

1. When you add people you don’t know, introduce yourself

Have you sometimes got some unknown people you have not seen before in your entire life replying to your threads? And sometimes, that person just wouldn’t leave you alone? Isn’t it irritating?

So, when you add somebody you think they have not met you before, introduce yourself and let them know you want to be friends.

2. Don’t message people in Facebook, get IM contact and do it there.

Even though Facebook is meant to be a socializing platform, but chatting in Facebook is really a pain in the ass. Get the person’s Instant Messenger and do your talking there!

3. Do less quiz, because nobody gives a shit

Honestly, all these quiz in Facebook, they are all b.s. and are regarded as spam to me sometimes. You want to know how many partners would you sleep with and which sex position would you use? By all means, do it quiz but don’t publish it, because nobody gives a damn.

4. 10101 does not predict your future

Wow, you are 100% lucky today. Well prove it, go out, stand in the middle of the freeway for 30 minutes and come back alive. Machines do not predict our future.

5. Stop sending the same app/game/group/event invites

Ok you have just sent like 20 game invitations to 20 of your friends today. Don’t do the same thing tomorrow, chances is that we will click the magic link “Ignore all”, because Facebook won’t tell you we ignored you.

6. Virus affected friends

They just contaminate the news feed with unnecessary information and links.

7. Quit Whining on Your Status Update

I am totally fine with people seeking attentions and shouting out of joy in Facebook, I would even join in and share their happiness as well. What annoys me most are status updates like…

“Im sick of you”
“My life sucks”
“Bad mood today”

Or anything of those sort. Seriously, that is not really a wise thing to do if you ask me. It is not effective and the 500 friends in your Facebook list couldn’t care less what happen to you. In fact, for every 10 people you tell about your problems, 7 will be happy that you have a problem, 2 will listen half heartedly and only 1 would listen.

A better choice will be to find that 1 person that would listen and whine to that particular person.

8. Quit begging people to buy you in Friends for Sale

Another irritating status updates are those who are begging people to buy them in the application called “Friends for Sale”. If people want to buy you (as if they would) they will buy you without having you to beg them like a dog.

9. Don’t emo in your Facebook

Even though this is sort of like what I explained at 7, but I purposely have this part separated because I once had a friend who literally took a picture of his emo self and posted it all over Facebook. I don’t see why anybody should remain in an emo state for such a long time.

The lack of attention maybe…

Fortunately, Facebook has created a function called “Hide”, where we can hide any applications and they will never appear again in your news feed.

Nonetheless, there is this application that utilizes your photo and that is…

10. Stop playing applications like “FanCheck”

The last and the least favourite things, the FanCheck application. Whenever a picture is posted in your profile by FanCheck and 20 of your friends has been tagged, a human kid died. Whenever somebody commented on the application, a kitten died. Whenever that thread of comment is replied, the Earth becomes hotter by a certain degree. So, for the sake of all the things God had created for us, stop playing FanCheck!

Any articles categorized/tagged in “Indifferent Thoughts” are the author’s perspective on the world. Statements are neither wrong nor right. It is up to us individuals to decide whether to believe or to turn a blind eye on the matter. However, discussions are always welcomed.

I am sure a lot of you out there have heard countless complaints on Nuffnang not paying their publishers. I myself have even seen a screenshot of 15 thousand Malaysian Ringgits still lingering in the publisher’s account not being paid. How true are those? Does Nuffnang pay their publishers?

My Experience with Nuffnang Australia

On 20th of April, a mail was sent to my inbox congratulating me of my first Nuffnang Advertising Campaign by ANZ bank. It was a six weeks campaign and it ended at 30th of May. While I was checking out, the customer service was quite helpful, it sorted out my payment issues (long story) but it took some time.

After that I had successfully cashed out the money from my Nuffnang account. The status was pending and I did not expect to be paid anytime during May. And of course, it did not happen.

On June, I gave up checking on the pending status until a week ago (26th August) where I noticed the pending status was changed to “sent”. I immediately sent a support ticket half expecting a reply from Nuffnang.

Living to Nuffnang’s reputation for being slow, I did not get any replies for a week until 31st of August. David replied this time and explained that the cheque has been sent on 20th June, I did not receive any mails though. So after 3 emails with David, he cancelled the cheque and confirmed that he had sent the money to me through bank transfer.

My Point of View on Nuffnang Australia

As you can see from my experience above, Nuffnang do pay their publishers, just extremely a bit late. Still, better late than never, at least now I am paid and my hosting and domain expenses are covered by my own website’s revenue.

Also, for Australians dealing with Nuffnang Aus, also make sure you are dealing with the correct person. I have actually sent countless messages before to a different person (not David) but most of the time, there were no results. David on the other hand produces results. Look how long does it take for David to sort out my payment, 2 days.

On top of that, the same person, David also settled my featured blogger of the month in Nuffnang Australia.

How can Nuffnang Australia Improve?

Obviously, there is a lot of room for improvement for Nuffnang Australia. Here are a few suggestions to start with.

• Constant Feedback
  Customers want constant feedback from the company, a week of ignorance (especially on payment) is a big no.
• Train Incompetent Employees
  David is a good example of a competent employee, the previous person (which I will not mention the name) needs some serious training.
• Pay Publishers on Time
  Nobody likes being paid late and publishers are like the employee of Nuffnang. The last thing a successful company wants is the inability to pay their employees at the end of the month.
• Reply Support Tickets at Least Once Twice Day
  I check my email at least 10 times a day, my webhost (serverfreak) replies my email in less than 2 hours most of the time, my friends replies my email at least once a day. I don’t see any reason why a company like Nuffnang could not check and reply support tickets at least twice a day.

Of course, Nuffnang cannot change overnight and my suggestions would not necessary help at all. But one thing is for certain, it is faster to be a globally recognized advertising company if publishers are treated well.

So … Rumours? Is Nuffnang Trustable?

So what about the complaints on the internet regarding Nuffnang not paying publishers? Like I said earlier, I am in no position to deny that statement as other people have different experiences with Nuffnang.

However, do bear in mind that there might be a possibility that I was paid because my payment was small. While payments like the 15 thousand in the first paragraph are not paid at all.

Or perhaps it is some rumours other companies made to defame Nuffnang? You make the call.

To end this article, I have mentioned earlier that this article have two aims. The second aim would be to shed light to Australian bloggers that at least Nuffnang Australia still pays their publishers even though it might take a while to do so.

I can only comment on the effectiveness of Nuffnang Australia because I have personally dealt with them. For other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore or The Phillipines, I pray good luck to all of you.

Right, I can virtually see a few of you cringe even by reading the phrase “blog for money”. Before you press “X” button, here is an advice, be a little more open minded. I know blogging for money sounds cruel to some people but learning (and understanding) the truth is just a switch of perspective away.

If you answered “yes”, good on you. I wish you all the best so that your blog can be capable of providing food on the table for you and your family in the future.

For those who answered “no”, let me put this very bluntly for you. I think you are living life aimlessly, you do not know the potential of the internet and to simply put it, you are wasting valuable time blogging for nothing.

The Simple Truths

Here are a few simple truths I have understood after a lot of reading and observing.

#1: Truth about Our Money System

One thing you need to know about the money system of the world is – our money is eating itself from the inside (like viruses eating you from the inside). This process is referred as inflation and with a constant 7% inflation per year, everything doubles their prices every 10 years. A million in your bank account today will worth as much as a little more than thirty thousand 50 years later.

I will cover more on this in the future.

#2: Truth About Creation

Things are created because there are profits to be made. The internet is created because the potential to make big money is there. The same goes to companies, organizations, gadgets and EVERYTHING.

#3: Truth About Time

This is common, even your grandparents had advised you on this before. Time awaits for no men and if you miss the opportunity to make a living, you are losing out!

#4: Truth About The Internet

This has little to do with your blog but important to know.

Before the dawn of internet, systems such as barter, commodities, receipt money are used. These are slow because the physical item must be presented, traveling time is spent and targeted market is small.

It is the information age now, everybody wants to make money by the speed of light through the internet. If you are using the internet for your business, you are tapping into the international market 24/7, compare this with the store you just opened.

#5: Truth About People Saying “I Don’t Blog For Money”

Ugh, it is my turn to cringe when I hear people say that. Look, that is like saying “I don’t wear condom for sex”, that’s ridiculous! We all know that we need money no matter what, we need money to entertain ourselves, have a drink, house rental, mortgages, gadgets, get married, we even  need money when we die! Who’s paying for your coffin and the land to put your coffin?

Thus the simple truth about people saying “I don’t blog for money” is they don’t know how and they are lazy to earn a living even for themselves! They expect people to spoon feed them with money.

#6: Now The Truth About Your Blog

Here are a few easy-to-understand and straightforward truths about your blogs.

Your blog is not a tool to…

• Show off your pictures, Facebook can do the job better!
• Seek attention
• Rant about your life, bosses fire their employees for the constant complaints about the company in their blog
• Overrun your government
• Share pirated things
• Chat with your friends (there are a lot of software out there to do this job)
• And the list goes on!

The Good News

The good news is that all truth about your blog can be overlooked if they are generating money. I don’t really care how the money is flowing into your pocket. Maybe your sexy shots got you a modeling job or maybe your boss promoted you because you gave constructive complaints. As long as you are generating money legally with your blog, it is alright.

Look at the headline image of this article. That picture illustrates how the internet looks like. It looks like a limitless universe to me, limitless opportunity and profit too.

Can I still Blog for Fun?

Fun is a very vague word, I would call that blog for nothing. Of course, you could also continue to blog for nothing, but I can assure you that you don’t just blog for nothing. If you blog for nothing, you blog to

• Waste money
• Waste your time
• Waste opportunities
• Waste your youth
• Waste resources
• And more!

What can I do if I’m not blogging for money?

Honestly you are better off without a blog if you are blogging for nothing. That way you can spend more time with your family, friends, love ones and do something that eventually generates your income!

Nevertheless, it is not too late to change. You can always disregard whatever you have answered yourself earlier (the “NO”) and ask yourself again…

Do you or do you not blog for money?

PS, if I have directly or indirectly insulted you in anyway, I apologize.

I finally found out the secret to some people earning thousands in a website. I’ve been receiving too many advices about writing a good post to drive more traffic into the website and money will come after that. In Google AdSense Marketing, writing a good post and drive more traffic can be metaphor as making the foundation for a cake. Important as it may be, it’s the icing above the cake that translates the taste, in this case, translates the money.

As a publisher, knowing all about publishing advertisements is not enough. Any publisher knows how to publish advertisement but how many publishers actually learn how to advertise? In other words, knowing everything about AdSense Marketing will only make you an average publisher, to be a successful publisher you need to know Adwords Advertising as well.

To do that, you’ll have to study more in-depth about the subject and use it’s tools. One of the most useful tools I’ve came across is Google Adwords Keyword Tools. This tells you detailed information about Keywords Bid Prices, Advertiser Competition and Search Volumes. These are all vital information to improve AdSense Marketing.

In case you don’t know, your AdSense pay per click is based on the prices bid on keywords (that generates relevant ads). I’ve seen people talk about their earning/click ratio and after the calculation, they’ve got only 8 cents/click average, some got only 3 cents per click. This is because they have knowing or unknowingly targeted the low paying keywords. With this average they will need 3 thousand clicks to reach the minimum AdSense payout! How long would that take?

I’ve also seen people creating many small niche websites all for the sake of targeting the high paying keywords and get paid quickly. Even though I doubt that they have the knowledge in that subject, they still learn profitable amount doing exactly that.

Google certainly did not tell you to earn money that way because all these High Paying Keyword AdSense Marketing begs the question,
Will the content quality be compromised when publishers target high paying keywords to earn a living?

I’m not saying publishers should not target high paying keywords or stop working on a website because the niche has low keyword bids. As far as I am concerned, I build websites to generate traffic, income from AdSense Marketing is just a reward after all the hard work. However, this does not stop me from being savvy and to target high paying keywords whenever I write an article.

Before I end the article I’d like to share some of these massively high paying keywords with you guys.

High Paying Keywords

1. Mesothelioma
2. Credit Card
3. Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer
4. Insurance

All these keywords have CPC (Cost per Click) bids as high as 10 bucks, if not more. Don’t worry if these keywords do not suit your website. I’m almost certain that there’re high paying keywords for every niche in the market.

With contrast to the “Internet Explorer – World’s Worst Browser” article I made on November 21st last year, Microsoft proved me wrong with their newly released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) this March 19th 2009.

I’m a person who likes to give constructive comments, but after using Internet Explorer 8 for some time, I realized that there’re not many constructive comments! In fact, I think I will have to give a round of applause to Microsoft because they are now a step more advanced and faster than their competitors.

New Feature

Microsoft introduced some new toys to enhance our browsing experience. A few of those would be Accelerator, Improved Search, Webslice and InPrivate browsing.

Accelerator 

I think of all features implemented, support for this new Accelerator feature will be massive. When I say massive, I mean support from all the big and popular websites. Why? Because Accelerator actually allows you to choose which service you want to use in just a click away (yes, you don’t even need to remember the names !!).

The services include Blog, Define (mainly dictionary & Wiki), Search Engine, Email, Maps and Translators. All internet users would at least use one of these features, there’s no escaping from the IE8’s Accelerator!

The Accelerator is available for usage right after you install Internet Explorer 8. It’s easy, all you need to do is

1. Select and add your favourite Accelerators at ieaddons.com.
2. Define your favourite services for to default at “Manage Add-ons”.
3. Start using the services in any website with just a click away!

For my case, I’ve chosen Dictionary.com, Google maps, Google Search, Gmail and Google Translator. If I have no idea what “easy” means, I’ll just have to highlight the text, click on the Accelerator Icon and press “Define with Dictionary.com”. A new tab would popup from dictionary.com and tells me what “easy” means.

Same goes to addresses, if I’m searching for “UNSW”, I just have to highlight the text, click on the Accelerator Icon and press “Map with Google Maps”. A new tab from Google Maps would popup and shows me where UNSW is.

Aren’t these functions great? I am waiting for wordpress to build their add-ons as well so that with a click of a button next time I can be directed straight to this editor.

Improved Search

While other search tabs only suggest or shows you texts, the improved Internet 8 search tab comes up with pictures! This is called “Visual Search” and can be seen especially when searching in Wikipedia.

Microsoft also claimed that Internet Explorer 8 also has an improved address bar. But from what I can see, it’s not as good. We will discuss more about that in part II.

Webslice

Have you ever watched a TV where you could open up a different channel at one of the corner of the screen? Webslice works that way too! But unlike TV, the website you want to bookmark must support Webslice. The Webslice icon must appear for you to bookmark it as a Webslice.

So far I’ve only discovered that the Weather Forcast from Live Search and Ebay is using Slice.

What you do is

1. You search for sliceable things
   
2. Click the icon to slice it (bookmark it)
3. Click on the bookmark and enjoy the little sneak peak (or updates) of other websites.
   

InPrivate Browsing

Visiting porn websites Browsing under an invisible cloak has never been easier with the introduction of InPrivate Browsing. Your browsing activities, history and cookies are saved. Great stuff, since all these are not saved, you can now turn on InPrivate Browsing in computer cafes and do your stuff without worrying about your cookies or passwords saved in other PCs.

To be continued - In the next part I will talk about the things Internet Explorer 8 has improved and what Microsoft should do to retain their #1 browser status in the internet world. Subscribe to RSS feed so you won’t miss out.

This is not new, not unique either, I just felt the need to vent my anger on the time Internet Explorer (IE) had wasted upon me and introduce my readers to a better browsing option.

Let’s get to the points, so why is Internet Explorer world’s worst browser?

IE crashes very frequently

If 4.2 babies are born every second internationally, 4.2 million IE crashes every second internationally.

I call myself quite a heavy browser. In the first 1 minute I can open 10 tabs of different websites and sometimes I can accumulate to up to more than 40 websites with Mozilla Firefox. Then close whatever tab I want without crashing and losing all the other 39 websites.

Internet Explorer Frequent Crash

With Internet Explorer, out of 10 times I close a tab or the browser itself, 4 times it will crash. What’s worse? Internet Explorer does not recover your lost browsers. This might even caused me to get phobia when closing a tab/IE browser that might lead to mental distress.

So let me make it clear for you, IE crashes easily, IE does not recover lost websites, it is safe to say that Internet Explorer don’t give a shit about their users.

Internet Explorer is Dumb

There is also this weird thing, whenever I open a browser, I want my website to occur, not some stupid unknown site. When I set my homepage, I seriously want my homepage to come up first every time I open Internet Explorer. Instead, Internet Explorer (I have no idea which individual wrote this software) loads their company’s website first.

Homepage Error

In the picture above, I chose blank as my homepage, meaning nothing will come out if I open IE. But see what happens, IE loads the last website I would visit.

Seriously, why would I use software that restricts me from choosing which website to browse into?

The last and worst part, IE is made by a company that makes “Micro sized Software”

Like micro sized software, you know what are bound to happen. Bugs and loopholes are everywhere. Here’s what I found from micro sized software while I was copying some documents from one of the PC in my Local Area Network.

Windows Yes and No Error

It should be “Copy” or “Move” not yes or no. Windows must be created by some Afghanistan Terrorist. It must be!

Although this has nothing to do with Internet Explorer but this shows how “professional” micro sized software can be.

In a Nutshell

For those who are not stupid, there are plenty of browsers out there that does not waste a bit of your time. Mozilla Firefox as one of the world’s best browser and Google Chrome are both stable and fast. Internet Explorer is just a waste of time.

Having said so many bad points about Internet Explorer, I can’t avoid the fact that Internet Explorer has one of the most intelligent Cascading Style Sheet reading format (except for some serious glitches). But it’s not a sad thing to say that most of us follow the Mozilla Firefox’s CSS standard.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs Returning Visitors has been a debate ever since the introduction of SEO. Some say, “as long as I have SEO provides traffic that generates revenue, I am happy”. Some say, “generating revenue while not retaining returning visitors is not the main point of a blog/website”. So what’s the fuss about Search Engine Optimization vs Returning Visitors?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization, like the name suggests, is basically improving the traffic of a website from search engines. Usually SEO is very closely attached with Google ranking*. Usually webmasters optimize their websites in such a way that search engines like Google or Yahoo can pick up the web content according to the targeted keywords used in the website. If that is done properly, chances that the website would appear earlier in Google or Yahoo search is much higher.

When a website is comes out earlier in any search engine, it can be said that the website has a higher Google Ranking than any other web pages of the same keyword. That way users who search for that particular keyword would enter your website much easier compared to other websites that comes out later in the search.

As a result, SEO works to improve traffic of your website. So, more traffic to your website but traffic does not guarantee returning visitors.

Applying SEO requires a lot of energy to for research. Hiring people to do SEO for you also costs a bomb.

Returning Visitors

Instead of optimizing your website for search engines to attract new visitors. How about optimizing it for returning visitors? There are numerous ways of approach to keeping your visitors. The very best way to have unique, quality posts. You can even organize activities, in your website … like rating something, a poll, some community thing like Facebook. There are just too many ways, however, the aim is to make your visitors coming back for more.

The only downfall for this method is you need some serious web programming language to pull it off. Do note that keeping visitors does not mean you have to target some particular keywords to make them come back.

What’s the fuss?

Of course, having both SEO and keeping returning visitors would be great. But we’re talking about SEO vs Returning visitors, which comes first?

Returning visitors actually understands your website. They have been to your website a couple of times and are actually interested in the articles you published. They would also provide some entertainment in your website if they have the time. Securing returning visitors also means having constant visitors throughout the month without looking at a disappointing low visitors during some days. However, returning visitors are the hardest to obtain, good content is a must to attract new visitors to come back.

Unlike returning visitors, new visitors come and go. Apart from SEO, new visitors can also be obtained by a little promotion of your website from other forums or some community websites like facebook, but this does not mean that they will stay for long. New visitors also tend to bounce* away very quickly if the site content does not matter to him/her. However, if adsense* or other advertising champaign is relevant, you might even earn some good bucks from there.

So which is better? You want entertainment in your website and constant visitors per month? Or do you prefer the cold hard cash but varying visitors per month? It’s all about your own preference. Of course, you can choose to do both, but do keep in mind that doing both requires time and commitment.

*Google Ranking – A method Google use to rank a website. Go search for Google Toolbar and install it in your browser, you will be able to see website’s ranking from the toolbar.

*Adsense – An advertising method Google and many webmasters use to earn money.

*Bounce – Visitors that enters only 1 page of your website and leave after that is called bounce away. In Google Analytics, it’s called “bounce rate”.

Say good bye to .com or .net top level domains. Next year when the registration opens, you can get your own Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) for your own organization. Only if you are rich enough.

Generic Top Level Domains registrations are only limited to established corporations, organizations, or institutions in good standing. Applications such as Individuals (bloggers) and sole proprietorships (sole traders) will not be considered.

However, there’s a huge fee that comes along with your gTLD. User Registration Fee USD100, gTLD Evaluation Fee USD 185,000. The fees statement does not stop here, they still have Registry Services Review Fee, Dispute Resolution Filing Fee, Dispute Resolution Adjudication Fee and Comparative Evaluation Fee.

More info can be found here.

This is no doubt only for big corporations and organizations. I don’t think any individual is rich or stupid enough to spend USD 200k for his/her own gTLD.

On another note, are they doing this because the western part of the world is in recession? Or are they really doing it for the sake of “innovation”?

Having said all these, it is awesome to have something like http://www.james.wee