Entries Tagged 'My Life' ↓

I’m 34 today. I’ve not opened any presents yet so lets hope for something nice from my GF and family

Now this is obviously an April Fools joke but theres got to be someone out there whos been sucked in by it lol.

google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/translateforanimals/

I love getting free stuff, and my latest freebie of some letraset takes me back to my days at college. A few months ago i snagged a link on qbn.com to an offer on image library specialists, Veer.com’s website where registered users could get some free letraset as part of a special promotion.

And mine arrived today

The packaging is great and really well thought out (im a sucker for orange and mid tone grey.

Ok, so my re-created blog has been live for around 2 weeks now after the deletion of the original site and I have to say that since I moved to WordPress I’ve never encountered so much spam. I’m running at over 100 spam messages in just a few days… starting with an influx from day 1. It seems that spammers out there are targeting the Hello World post trying to get around sites without Askimet running… If you’re running WordPress and have a significant spam issue then I suggest choosing another platform as, like I said, WordPress is a Spam Magnet!

Heres a random tip thats come from Michelle at work (hi Michelle).

I spent the weekend in agony as I’ve had to buy a new pair of ‘going out’ shoes for a weekend in Manchester because, by all accounts, they don’t let you into pubs and clubs in trainers (just like in the early 1990s WTF!). The shoes have rubbed away a big patch of skin on the back on my foot and ive got a blister the size of portugal on my heel so in an effort to stretch the shoes to be more comfortable ive tried all sorts of things.

Michelle however, has a great tip that allows you to stretch shoes the easy way without the need for any special tools.

Simply fill a sandwich bag with water and insert it into the shoe, then pop your shos into the freezer (ingenious) and as the ice freezes and begins to expand your shoes will be stretched , then simply take out and allow to thaw…

GENUIS!

topseo.org has featured my article on how to get more than 1000 baclkinks listed from Yahoo Site Explorer (I’ll post a link once I’ve reinstated the page). The post was placed at position #47 and is amongst such names as Dave Naylor, Marketing Pilgrim, CopyBlogger, SEOMoz, Matt Cutts, Shoe Money, Grey Wolf and Bruce Clay… great company indeed

*pats self on back* LOL

To view them all copy and pase this url http://www.topseo.org/2009/12/24/top-50-blog-articles-2009/
(edited to preserve inbound link juice:)

The last 24 hours have been really nasty. I accidentally deleted several key files including the Microsoft Access database from markrushworth.com and my host, Fasthosts were unable to provide me with a backup as they’re “only for internal use only”.

This means I’ve had to start again from scratch.

Luckily Google has cached most of my content so I have been able to scrape much of it back (despite Google thinking I’m an automated process and freezing me out every so often), so expect a resurection soon.

I was planning to move from BPBlog to WordPress in April when my hosting renewal was due so I guess its just brought forwards the time-frame for this. I’m also in the process of moving hosts from Fasthosts to Heart Internet who will provide me with a better service and more of pretty much anything for around £15 per month less than Fasthosts so they’ve lost a good, long standing customer.

The hosting move also means I can accelerate my experiments in Affiliate marketing with which I was netting around £70 per month in unexpected income which is nice so expect more posts on this.

I haven’t managed to keep any of the comments so my apologies there, however this blog, like the last one will be do follow friendly so I’m continuing the link love in exchange for good quality feedback and questions.

Thats all for now.

Mark

It’s really great when people you don’t know can see the value in what you’re doing and today was such a day. I received a nice little email about my Glastonbury post where I mentioned buying walking boots in place of wellies. It said something along the lines of…

“shame you’ve already bought some walking boots as I’d have given you a pair in exchange for a link”

As a died in the wool Yorkshire man, I couldn’t resist a freebie so I quickly emailed Adam from Fitness Footwear and opened expressed my interest.

It seems that Adam is using product bribes as a way of increasing his serps for the term ‘walking boots’ (amongst others), approaching blog owners like me and offering a sly bribe of some free equipment in exchange for some juicy links.

Needless to say, this post is the result (let’s throw in another reference for walking boots just for good measure lol) however it begs the question…

“Why don’t other product suppliers offer goods in exchange for marketing assistance?”

In my previous life, as owner of a small web studio, I’m no stranger to blagging some freebies from the occasional customer. yet in the realm of online marketing with millions of casual bloggers creating masses of content on a daily basis, such an approach could yield massive results. Sure, you have to cherry pick the brightest and best of blog owners, the articles need to be well written and come from authoritive sources, and you’re offer has to be tempting enough for a bite, but this is no different from ‘obtaining links’ for cash.

Where it does have the advantage is that its a more personal relationship and instead of a couple of pounds spent buying some dodgy links from an Indian blog network, you could get bigger and better product placement reviews from a more Google friendly sources.

Adam also mentions that It’s also worth mentioning that bloggers have been so impressed with Fitness Footwear that they’ve bought products from us, essentially making our money back on the freebies that were sent out in the first place.

So if you’re a marketer working for a product based company consider throwing some freebies at worthwhile bloggers… you never know, it could be the trust/authority/juice you need to top the rankings.

I’ll post a picture of my new walking boots when they turn up next week shoe money stylee

…and thanks for the bribe Adam.

So its coming close to the time when I’ve to pay the balance on my Glastonbury ticket so I’ve decided to go shopping and correct some of the mistakes I made last year.

1. Wellies

Last year I borrowed a pair of wellies (thanks john). this resulted in much time wasted trying to get them on and off (especially when a little drunk), and rub marks appearing on my legs due to prolonged use over the 5 days we were there.

This year I have opted to buy some waterproof walking boots and several pairs of long walking socks. I picked up my Hi-Tec walking boots for £35 from an outlet and got some free socks into the bargain. Although they wont be suitable for deep puddles, they will prove to be more versatile, comfortable and easy to get on and off and I can always lace them 1/2 way up should it be a sunny day (fingers crossed).

2. Sleeping Bag

If anyone wants a 1 man sleeping bag… used only once for last years Glastonbury then get in touch… you can have it!

This year I’ve been bought (thanks Jo) a double sleeping bag with a cotton inside. This will help me get to sleep better, providing more room to move around, additional warmth (its freezing at nights) and comfort as the polyester inside of my old sleeping bag became clingy and often took to wrapping its self around me making me uncomfortable.

3. Food

This year I wont be taking any food accept for some cereal bars for breakfast. The food there is pretty cheap at around £3 for a plate full of food.

4. Water

I will only be taking 1 refillable bottle of water with me this year. Just top up when your in the line to wash in a morning.

5. Booze

I’m taking a bottle of jack and a few bottles of premium cola this year. Last year we too too much booze which almost killed me transporting it from the car to the tent. I also made the mistake of choosing a cheap bourbon which after a day or so became the nastiest drink ever lol.

6. Clothes

I’m taking an extra set of clothes this year to go home in. It is evident that after sleeping in a tent for 5 nights without any proper showers and only a stand pipe to wash from that you’re going to pong. save the embarasment of the journey home and the numerous service station stop-offs by changing and if possible having a shower in the service stations.

7. Going Home

We plan to leave on the night of the last event. Last year we stayed over until the morning after and was stuck in the car parks for over 4 hours which was a nightmare. So on the last day you will see me carrying my stuff back to the car in the morning before the gigs start.

When my iPhone contract ended in April (last year) I was hesitent to jump on the band wagon with one of the smart phones of the time, mainly due to the massive whispers about Android and the leaked shots of some of the new android devices (Samsung Galaxy, Hero, Leo and the now X10) so I moved my contract to o2′s rolling contract (saving myself a fortune) which left me free to change/cancel my contract with a months notice when one of these new blisteringly cool phones came out.

I decided to leave the Hero and Galaxy as the screen size was too small as I really wanted an android based iPhone like experience. The HTC HD2 was a disapointment not due to the hardware or features, but because it was stuck on Windows Mobile 6.5 so I kept my fingers crossed for the X10 or Driod/Milestone to be in the UK for a pre christmas release.

Fed up of the constant delays in releasing a next-gen android phone in the UK I went phone shopping and over the course of a few months built up a big list of the phones I didnt want.

Last weekend I found the T-Mobile Pulse and was instantly smitten. The screen size was perfect it had Android (1.5 not 2.0), a cool form factor and was pretty snappy. So I signed up on a bargain contract and took the phone home happy as larry.

T-Mobile Pulse

Over the course of the next few days I began playing with the phone, optimising the settings ala iPhone to max out the battery life, adding the usual apps like Facebook, TweeDroid and the likes with a view to having a really sweet setup.

I ran into a problems with the phone including battery life, keypad usability and it wigging out every so often so I dialled 150 and decided to give T-Mobile support a call… only the phone doesnt work with ‘press 1 for this, press 2 for that’ call systems it seems… so back to my iPhone I called through and got through (no problems there) and asked them about battery life. Even with some mamoth full charges lasting overnight, my Pulse was only giving me about 1/2 days charge with super light use, no calls or text (im waiting for the number to move across). I checked online and im not the only one experiencing this. I plan on using my phone at Glastonbury so need it to run for at least 5 days with limited use, which the iPhone managed no problem.

It seems t-mobile wont let me swap the phone over the telephone and that any change is at the discretion of the store manager where I purchased it as ‘I have time to look over the phone in the store’ which I hardly think is a long enough period to text a new piece of technology, so I’m going to have to go back to manchester to pick a new phone this weekend.

I might go for the HTC HD2/Leo after all, as theres some great noises about porting android to it using blends of Nexus One etc firmware. Its a shame really becaue the Pulse had a lot going for it. It just needs the buggs working out.

I suppose the moral of this story is that when buying phones, protect yourself by buying online. That way your’re subject to the 30 day cooling off period.

Update: After lots of faffing, the Manager at the branch agreed to swap my Pulse for the HD2 (I relented as it is a good phone but I still want android on it so I hope the developers of haret get it working soon on xda-developers forum. I’ll post my review of the HTC HD2 later.