It’s been eleven years since I first signed up for an internet dialup account. Imagine that. I was so excited to see a small ISP opening shop in a nearby town; until then there was no local phone number for those of us in my small West Virginia town.

That company became even more significant for me because I applied for a job there and was hired. I worked there from 1999 until 2006. By the time I left the company, the original owners were all gone and dialup was dying an agonizing death. Even here, in our nothing spot on the map, high speed internet has become the norm.

Or has it?

It turns out that as many as 40% of internet users are still using dialup. Some do so because of availability and others because of cost. Admittedly, I’ve stuck with DSL simply because it’s less expensive than cable. And since I’m not a gamer, DSL is plenty fast enough for me. The big question, though, is how can anyone justify charging $20 for dialup when DSL is available for roughly the same price?

I guess that’s the same question that the folks at PCDialup.com were asking themselves. Knowing that a large number of people still use dialup at 1996 prices, PCDialup.com decided to offer their dialup connection at a reasonable price. How reasonable? Well, how does $3.95 per month sound?

No kidding, the basic service is just $3.95 per month while the software accelerated service is only a dollar more at $4.95. That is so reasonable that I can’t imagine anyone choosing any other dialup service.

Right now, PCDialup.com is available only in California but will be expanding to cover the entire US. This has got to be the best news on the ISP front this year. Internet access is an important investment in everyone’s future. Many parents, previously unable to afford access, will now be able to give their children the same technology advantages as other children from more affluent homes. Elderly folks on fixed income will also be able to take advantage of the many offerings of the online world.

I applaud PCDialup.com for making this technology affordable for so many. And I anxiously await their nationwide push so that everyone in this country can benefit from this innovative approach to pricing. Thank you, PCDialup.com

• Posted in:
  • Services,
  • tech
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments (2)

I know quite a few people who have joined online dating sites. I know a number of people who met their Significant Other online and are quite happy, still. I’m not in the market for a date – I am, after all, married – but I thought this site might be of interest to a few of my friends.

What sets Just Say Hi apart from so many other services is that it’s completely free. After a quick 60-second sign up, you can start browsing and searching. Just Say Hi makes Online Dating quick, easy and affordable. No credit care required, ever!

They even offer a great community forum for chatting and getting to know each other. That’s really a nice way to start out before you take the plunge and add a picture and profile. I have a couple people in mind right now who might be interested in this site. I won’t mention their names but I’m sending this link to them. This is a no-risk way to meet new people. And who knows where that may lead?

• Posted in:
  • Community,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

I’m going out on a limb and guessing that every woman has been cheated at some point in her life. And I’ll go further and guess that everyone knows at least one person who has been abused, verbally, emotionally or physically.

For the record, I know that women cheat, too. I know that women can be abusive, too. I would never insinuate otherwise. However, WomanSavers is about assisting women in moving on from abusive or cheating men. And frankly, I know quite a few women who could benefit from the site. Heck, I could have benefitted from the site 3 decades ago, before I met my husband.

Perhaps the most important section of the whole website is the excellent information for abused women. Not all women know where to turn for help and this page meets that need. The list here is comprehensive and offers such a variety of agencies that there’s no reason to click away without finding help.

The site also offers a nice selection of self-awareness quizzes and really friendly message boards. And naturally, since it’s a site geared toward women, there’s a shopping section. Cute stuff, there.

The area of the site that held my interest, though, was the Search-a-Guy section. Yes, you can search for guys that other ladies may have entered by name or location. I don’t know why I did it but I had to see if I knew anyone in the database. The easiest way to do that was to search a location. First try, I got a hit. Yes, I knew someone listed although not in a romantic relationship way. Very interesting nevertheless.

I’m not sure that I’d take the comments there about specific guys at face value. Sometimes, men and women can be vengeful after a breakup. And yet, a warning about a truly dangerous or toxic man can prove to be a blessing. As well, the site offers some excellent advice, especially for those who are abused.

• Posted in:
  • Community,
  • Health,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

I’m always looking for ways to attract new readers and keep the old ones coming back. Isn’t that what most bloggers do? I provide a feed; I know that helps quite a bit. The fact is, though, not everyone uses a feed reader. Not everyone is going to visit every day, even if they are interested in my blog. Some people actually have lives away from the internet. (Yeah, I was surprised to learn this, too.)

I’ve been looking over this great new concept in blog email called Zookoda. I’m really impressed with this and thinking of giving it a try. I’d really love to hear from my readers about it.

This free service (yes, I said free), allows visitors to my blog to sign up for daily, weekly or monthly newsletters with all my blog updates. I’d never want to send an email newsletter to someone who didn’t request it but for those who find it an easier way to keep up with my blog, I think this could be a great service.

Everything I’ve read about Zoodoka at the site has me very interested. I can think of a dozen or so blogs I’d like to see with this service. I have a number of blogs in my google reader but the fact is, I sometimes miss the ones I really like. They kind of get lost in the mix. Zookoda’s service would really come in handy for my favorite blogs.

So, anyone have any thoughts on this service? Let me know what you think.

• Posted in:
  • Blogging,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

My husband has sent me flowers exactly two times in the past almost 30 years. He sent me a dozen roses for Mother’s Day in 1981 when I was pregnant with Jesse. He sent me a dozen roses for our anniversary in 1991 when I was pregnant with Boomer.

Each time he sent me flowers, it was because a woman friend told him to do it.

Right now he’s in Hawaii. For Valentine’s day, he set his clock to 3am so he could call me when he knew I’d be awake and before I left the house to wish me a happy V-day. That was sweet. But no flowers.

Oh, but Mother’s Day is right around the corner! Two of my sons are in Hawaii but they never forget me on this special day. And 4 of my kids are right here so I can drop hints to them. I’m sneaky like that.

In fact, if they ask, I’m going to tell them to get together and plan this out so that I get fresh flowers every Monday for the next six weeks. That’s one flower delivery per kid spread out over six weeks, right up until summer is in full bloom!

And you know, I think I’ll suggest the same thing for my birthday in November.

This is a sponsored post.

• Posted in:
  • Family,
  • Kids,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

Since I began putting more effort into my blogging, I’ve become more aware of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. It’s a complicated but ineresting topic and it’s taking me quite a while to grasp it.

Right now I’m still trying to do this on my own but I’m beginning to see how an expert in this field could help me a great deal. I know I learned a little about it from my last job. There’s just so much more to it, though.

During my searching I found several ineresting SEO Companies. I was especially impressed with Bay Street’s comprehensive offerings. They can help with everything from Google SEO to Text Link Building. Bay Street offers convenient packages at very reasonable prices, too.

The one caveat of SEO is ethics. Not every company operates by a code of ethics that ensures that your site will stay on the good side of various search engines. “Gaming” the system is not ethical. Bay Street SEO does follow a code of ethics which ensures that your search engine rankings will be honest and true.

I’m still a small time blogger but I’m not giving up on growing my reader base and increasing my page rank. I’m going to start off with Bay Street’s Guide to Search Engine Writing to learn as much as I can about this. If all goes well, next year at this time I’ll be able to take the next step and purchase one of Bay Street SEO’s packages to help my site to really take off.

• Posted in:
  • Business,
  • Finance,
  • Services,
  • tech,
  • Travel
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

PayPerPost, the premier blog marketing company, has rolled out a fantastic update that rewards bloggers for consistant quality and high traffic. That’s right, the more traffic your blog gets, the more money you can make with PayPerPost. How much more money? Well, depending on your page rank and other rating systems, you could make as much as $1000 for a single post!

Now, I admit I don’t qualify for $1000 opp just yet, but I like to set goals and I’m determined to meet that one. I’m doing well with PayPerPost now, with just a PR5, because PayPerPost charges advertisers just 35% service fee unlike the 100% markup that ReviewMe charges. So yeah, this is the best place for making the highest amount of money. No one tops PayPerPost when it comes to rewarding bloggers.

It’s important to note, also, that PayPerPost now requires full disclosure on individual blog posts as well as a site-wide dislosure policy. This has brought transparancy to blog advertising and ensures that this model will grow and flourish.

Advertisers, too, have greater control over their ad campaigns with the release of segmentation. Advertisers can select the desired minimum PR, the maximum Alexa score and a specific catagory or catagories for their advertisment. They can also rate bloggers from one to five and select a rating number they prefer for their campaign.

PayPerPost has listened to advertisers and bloggers alike to make this the blog marketing model that will withstand the test of time.

• Posted in:
  • News,
  • Op Ed,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

I’m always trying to drive traffic to my website. I’d love for this site to move up in PR and down in Alexa numbers. I want my keywords to show up at the top of every search engine. Doesn’t every webmaster want that?

I spend a lot of time and effort working towards those goals. If you own a company or a business website, though, your best bet is to hire someone to do that kind of SEO (search engine optimization) for you. Seriously, it’s a lot of work and finding someone who knows the ins and outs of SEO is worth the money. It’ll pay for itself many times over in sales.

I’ve been looking into this for my own site and was really impressed with eTraffic Jams. At some point I need to admit that I need the help of a professional and I’m confident that this is the place to turn. eTraffic Jams is a “Pay-for-Performance” model. Basically that means that you pay for results, not promises. I like that idea.

I was especially impressed with the case study on the site. When a happy customer takes it upon himself to write the company with praise and thanks, that’s big. And the fact that eTraffic Jams brought this company a 161% increase in traffic is huge! According to the Web Manager for www.furnitureesuperstore.com, Brent Edger, this resulted in an improved bottom line.

I really need to increase traffic here and at my other sites. eTraffic Jams is at the top of my list for SEO!

This is a sponsored post.

• Posted in:
  • Blogging,
  • Business,
  • Services,
  • tech
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

Money may not be able to make you happy but it certainly can make you miserable. Or perhaps I should say the lack of money can make you miserable. The lack of money plus too many bills can be totally devastating.

I know quite a few college kids who are offered credit cards that end up destroying them. When they attempt to get a loan for that first new car or for a first home, they find they can’t afford the cost of Bad Credit Mortgage Loans although that’s all that’s available to them. It’s a tough place to be at such a young age. Just ask my son.

CreditLoan.com offers sound advice for repairing your credit rating. I’ve looked over the credit card information and I’m taking notes on that. We’ve always been very careful about credit cards and have purposely kept our limits low so as not to be tempted to overspend. Nevertheless, it’s good to find other advice because credit cards can be tricky. I’m especially naive about airline miles associated with credit cards.

If you read nothing else at CreditLoan.com, be sure to check out the article on Predatory Lending Scams. I know that we’ve been tempted in the past to consider a home equity loan. If you have, too, read through the advice here. You won’t regret it.

This is a sponsored post.

• Posted in:
  • Business,
  • Life,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off

I think one of my neatest online discoveries back in the 90s was eCards or online greeting cards. There were literally hundreds of sites, all with unusual and unique ecards. I sent them to anyone with an email address, for every occasion and sometimes for no occasion.

Most of those sites I used to visit now charge quite a bit to send ecards and most of the sites are anything but unique. I learned this yesterday, on Valentine’s Day. How disappointing.

One site, though, makes sending ecards a pleasure again. Egreetings lets you send unique, free funny eCards to all your friends. And every ecard you send can be personalized with your own message, too.

Egreetings.com also offers a paid service that allows you to choose cards and schedule them for delivery on dates you specify. That really makes keeping in touch so easy. And it’s just $13.99/year for unlimited ecards! You can’t buy 4 nice paper cards and mail them for that!

How unique are the ecards? Well, I’ve never seen a Valentine card with Chins before! Be sure to click on the image because the ecard is animated. You’ll want to see it in full action.

But don’t wait till next Valentine’s Day to send an ecard. Egreetings.com has ecards for every occasion. Whether you’re congratulating someone, just saying hello or wishing a Happy Birthday, you’ll find the perfect ecard at egreetings.com. (Go ahead, click the cleavage, too. It may not be what you expect. )

This is a sponsored post.

• Posted in:
  • Friends,
  • Fun,
  • Humor,
  • Services
• • Send to a friend,
  • your printer or
  • your friend's printer
• • Comments Off