Jude’s Eclectic Resources

Sometimes I feel like I just crawled out from under a rock because I seem to be clueless about what is going on around me. Of course I was offline for about a week also and things happen very quickly on the Internet. It’s like my parents sent me to the store for milk and moved while I was gone.

I was checking my stats over at Clicky and there was a headline that caught my eye Paypal has been terribly broken for 10 days and no one’s talking about it so I headed over to the blog to see how PayPal was broken. If you’re like me and  haven’t heard they are having a big problem receiving payments from different countries.

I use PayPal as do countless others, but since I remember all the horror stories over the years about accounts being frozen and other people losing thousands of dollars and all the rules and restrictions, which for the most part is good I leave very little money in that account. As soon as it reaches a certain point then boom I transfer to my bank.

No way would I even sign up for a PayPal credit card because with all the phishing and scams it makes me very uneasy. According to Clicky the fix is a simple one, a drop down box that would enable people with accounts in other countries to be able to pay, but it is taking them a long time to rectify this problem.

Thank goodness I don’t depend on them mainly for my business, but many do. However I do receive payments from PPP through them and the reputation they have developed over the years at times make them an iffy option to use. I have never experienced any real problems, but many have.

So if you are like me and haven’t read the Clicky blog use the link above and head on over. The last comment someone posted yesterday said they received an e-mail from PayPal telling them that there was a  live site maintenance scheduled for Thursday, May 29 at 11 pm PST, but I haven’t received any communication.

Many new people starting online are always looking for information on how to start a business and many start out with the cheapest possible hosting plan or a free one and that is a real no no. With so many hosting plans out there it isn’t always easy to get started and of course you see people asking in forums about who other people are using and many people are affiliates for the hosting they are with.

I tried pushing my hosting for awhile and since I was such a horrible affiliate I never made any money, but I’m still with Bluehost because I like them. I’ve never used anything but linux web hosting so I’m not sure how other platforms work, but I know a site that will explain it and you will find a lot of information that will help explain other concerns with hosting.

The new site coming is called Web Hosting Rating and the name speaks for itself, but at this time that part isn’t in effect yet, but there are many articles and tutorials in place that will help the beginner and even explains how to use scripts. I picked up a couple of hints myself and they explained about the different types of hosting and I finally understood about dedicated servers.

So if your looking for information give them a try and good luck with your business.

Some days I feel like I’m brain dead and wonder why I’m even wasting all my time and money. I’m debating with myself about deleting 4 of my websites because they are simply sitting there and I do absolutely nothing with them. I sometimes think I’m going broke online.

I know I haven’t worked on them for a couple years so it’s silly to pay for domain names and websites that are useless even though I’m sure the information is probably helpful to the visitors that Google sends. Since taking up blogging I have neglected many things, but at least I’m not wasting my money on programs any more.

I have wasted so much money online since deciding that I could actually make some and a hundred of that was to a program called The Best Traffic Of  Your Life or TBTOYL and what this program did was redirect your websites or affliate links through their program and they claimed that it would help your traffic also. Well it didn’t and it was a real pain to use so I don’t use it any more.

I really don’t do much affiliate work any more so I don’t need the redirecting. If your not careful you can spend a lot of money to make money. Many people succeed online by using free programs and services and silly me I even paid for that information that I could have found by myself, but that was when I first started out.

I work within a budget now so all those great new programs that come out I simply block because I know I don’t need them and I wont ever use them just like the ton I just got rid of. I can never understand how to use these must have programs anyhow. Hide your credit card because it’s way to easy to whip out and go broke.

Does anyone belong to Sk*rt? I joined last year sometime and submitted a few of my post and then grew away from it like so many of the others. You can submit pretty much anything you want and like many of the other programs people vote on it or not and it was one of the ways I used to gain new traffic.

Depending on the category and how interesting your news worthy item was the more votes you would receive. They have many different categories you can submit to and it’s not difficult, but I tend to forget half the programs I join. Even though it was female gender based the male gender was also accepted.

I still see some of the Sk*rt badges around, but like everything else there has to be change and so it is with Sk*rt. They have changed their name and location now to Kirtsy so all of you that didn’t vote on the new name change are now aware that they are the same. It must be my age because I hate constant change especially if I have to do alot of work.

What pains me is the fact that all those people with old badges will now have to go back and change them all to the new ones and of course any track backs from the other site will be obsolete. Actually I never really thought about it because I’m not technical, but would you have to delete those or would they just disappear?

They also have a contest going for anyone that helps them spread the word, but I’m not leaving a comment on the blog to enter, but I did want to make sure I did my part to help and besides it gave me something to post about. Thoof is another program that I joined and used for awhile, but I pushed that one to the back burner also.

I’m just glad I didn’t have those badges all over the place. Too much to do, too little time.

The Internet changes so quickly that I find myself getting lost half the time. Everyday new programs spring up and if you listen to all the marketers out there, you must have each and everyone to survive online. The urgency that they promote to us with is more for themselves instead of us because they know if they don’t make a killing within a weeks time that another new product will spring up tomorrow and they will be out of luck.

Internet marketing is a tough niche and I simply didn’t have the stamina or drive to stick with it. There are so many things you have to know and keep abreast of to stay ahead of the hordes that expect to make a killing. It doesn’t take long to find out that if you aren’t connected with the right people then your dead in the water. The best marketers have learned after years of trial and error how to cultivate the uninitiated and build trust.

Programs come and go with such frequency and I marvel at the minds that think them up and the long hours it takes to promote and build the buzz and hype. Of course they tell you that you can make a killing and live like they do. People are so desperate for the good life that usually the new marketer trying to make it online goes broke with all the mentoring and seminars and must have products to build his empire.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that most are just wannabes and are just waiting for their ship to come in. Years ago you would hear, Fake it till you make it and back then it was easier because there were so many naive inexperienced Internet users. The new frontier was wide open, but now we are savvy, wary, and cautious and that’s a good thing. I have tried so many programs and products over the years and I am happy to say I didn’t go broke.