Sunday, October 14, 2007

early afternoon

Are you right-brained or left-brained?

No matter what I do, I can’t make her spin in any direction other than clockwise.  What direction does she spin for you?  And, do you think the right/left brain descriptions are accurate for you?  It seems semi-accurate for me, although I don’t generally think of myself as a risk-taker, I suppose being mostly self-employed for the past eight years counts as a risk, huh?  Speaking of that, we just bought a cool Brother sewing machine that does all kinds of fancy things, so we’re going to learn how to use it to make cat toys filled with the very best organic catnip.  The catnip has already been tested on our cats and it makes every single one of them go nuts.  It must be similar to the catnip that the Mutts people use for Little Pink Sock, because we’ve had some of those for years, and the cats still love them.  However, we’d like to make some fun new shapes and maybe even make some of them refillable.  We also want to learn how to do some needle felting - I’m especially interested in Amigurumi.  I think that I was probably meant to be born Japanese.  I like the food, the electronics, and the wacky obsession with cute.

Monday, October 08, 2007

late afternoon

Idiot of the Day - BISSELL

I just received an email from BISSELL, bragging about how they’re helping Petfinder.  Let me tell you a little about affiliate marketing and then we’ll see how much bragging Bissell should be doing.  BISSELL tells me in their Petfinder advertisement (and yes, that’s exactly what it is, advertising on the back of Petfinder) email that my purchase can help Petfinder.  They think because I joined Petfinder that I’ll fall all over this part of their email, “Did you know when you purchase BISSELL products through the Petfinder.com website, 5% of the total sale will go directly to Petfinder.com? Nothing could be better than helping sheltered pets while making cleaning around the home a little easier!”

Whoo hoo, 5 whole percent?  Hold me back, I’m so excited.  Okay, I lied, I’m not excited at all.  I’m an affiliate for Sharper Image, and if I sell their products, I get a minimum of 8% (it used to be 10%, when we were actually making money from our Sharper Image traffic - funny how the percentage was lowered at the same time as our sales percentage was also lowered...mo’ money for Sharper Image, but this isn’t about them) to a maximum of 12%, and I’m just a person walking in off the street.  So, I went to BISSELL’S website to see what their affiliate program pays.  Yes, it indeed also pays 8%, so they’re stealing 3% from Petfinder, yet getting the benefit of advertising as a pet loving do-gooder through Petfinder’s email list.  Pretty crappy, huh?

Sure, I forgot to mention the tremendous giveaway of ten (10) free BISSELL/Petfinder shirts, if you register for the “BISSELL Pet Lovers Community”.  Whoo hoo, ten whole t-shirts.  If you buy the fancy-pants BISSELL ProHeat 2X Select Upright Deep Cleaner (which I’d love to have, by the way - although the Little Green Portable Deep Cleaner might be even better...and cheaper)
for $250, the average BISSELL affiliate off the street would make $20; however, Petfinder would only make $12.50.  Not very pet friendly, is it?  Shouldn’t BISSELL be giving Petfinder a BETTER affiliate percentage than Joe Schmoe, who logs into the BISSELL website and immediately gets to make 8%?  I think that, at the very least, Petfinder should make 10%.  I can get $2 t-shirts at Michael’s to print cute BISSELL/Petfinder advertising on, so I’m not impressed by the ten t-shirts they’re giving away each month.

I was going to write to BISSELL myself, privately, but I was so offended by the crappy 5% that I needed to do it publicly.  The email acted like BISSELL was doing such a tremendous favor for Petfinder, when in fact, it’s Petfinder who is doing the favor for BISSELL.  Maybe Petfinder just needs to find some experienced affiliate marketers who know when companies are trying to cheat a pet rescue organization.  If you’d like to tell BISSELL how disappointed in them you are, here’s their contact form.

By the way, this isn’t to say that BISSELL doesn’t have excellent products - they do.  But, I would like them to be more generous to Petfinder...or at the very least, treat them as well as they’d treat any affiliate who wanders by their website to sign up for their affiliate program.

terribly early in the morning

Hey, San Diego Chargers Fans, You’re Welcome!

I knew exactly what you needed to get Philip Rivers out of his slump.  I dropped him from my fantasy football team earlier in the week, to pick up a quarterback who had a bye.  I played Jon Kitna, who had an enormous 2.54 points.  Of course, he almost looked like a superstar compared to Larry Johnson (yes, that Larry Johnson) who had 1.5 points.  It’s been five weeks and Larry Johnson, who started the season ranked #3 in the whole league is now performing at #90. NINETY!  My kicker has more points than my superstar running back, and he isn’t even the #1 kicker.  My other players are getting injured left & right, and my team, no matter how hard I’ve tried and no matter how good they look on paper, they’re 0-5.  Normally, I’d blame myself, but these guys SUCK!  Seriously, how can I blame myself when Larry Johnson has yet to score a touchdown this season?  My team is so bad that I can’t even settle on what to name them.  I think I’m going to change the team name to Witness Protection.

At least the Leafs won on Saturday.  Oh, and Marl told me that the Wranglers signed identical twins, Chris & Peter Ferraro.  <---They've been playing so long that an article about them appears on an Angelfire site.  Remember Angelfire?  Oh, and here's a site more about the guys and less about the sad story of Chris’s wife, Jennifer.  But, it’s so old that it’s a Tripod site.  Remember Tripod?  Here’s the latest info from the Las Vegas Wranglers’ website - I like how the webmaster thought to him/herself, “They’re identical twins, let’s save space and only picture one of them.  Surely they won’t mind, they’re identical after all.” Anyway, it sounds like they’re pretty good (if a bit long in the tooth) and will add some character to the team.

terribly early in the morning

Blog World Expo - I’m So Excited!

I’ve been waiting for the Blog World Expo for almost a year, and now it’s only a month away.  Unfortunately, the Executive & Entrepreneur Conference where you get the more advanced sessions, is OUTRAGEOUSLY (in my opinion) expensive.  So, several bloggers that I’ve personally signed to syndication contracts for Newstex...and Arianna Huffington, will have to just wait until next year (if I can even afford it then - it’s $695 before Oct. 19th and $895 after!) to have me as an attentive student in their sessions. Leigh-Ann and I paid for the poor people’s “Standard” conference, although my employer offered me a free pass that they received with their payment for a booth/sponsorship, but those don’t come with any sessions, which I’ve been looking forward to for a long long time, so we had to fork over our own cash.  I’ve wanted to get as much learning and schmoozing out of the conference as possible since I haven’t been able to go to any of the blogger conventions over the past couple of years.  Ah, that just reminded me, I need to make up new business cards.  “Flippy - Blogger Extraordinare or maybe just Ordinaire.

Here is my schedule (and Leigh-Ann’s too - we have similar interests for the sessions we could afford, although we probably would’ve taken some different ones if we could’ve afforded the Executive & Entrepreneur ones) for the conference next month:

Thursday - 8 November
OPENING KEYNOTE 8:45 AM 9:45 AM
Good to Great: Blogging & Profit Potential 1:30 PM 2:30 PM
How Online Conversations Change Markets 2:45 PM 3:45 PM
Maximizing the Benefits of Small Business Blogs 4:00 PM 5:00 PM
THE NEW MEDIA MOGULS ROUNDTABLE 5:15 PM 6:15 PM

Friday - 9 November
The Future of New Media Publishing Tools 8:45 AM 9:45 AM
Using Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Blog 1:30 PM 2:30 PM
Building Relationships with Bloggers 3:00 PM 4:00 PM
FEATURED SPEAKER KEYNOTE 4:15 PM 5:15 PM

Hmm, I just looked over the sessions list again, and we’ve signed five or six of the speakers whose sessions are too pricey for us.  That’s kind of sad.  Maybe we can wave at them from down the hall.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

lunch time

So, I woke up with this headache…

Apparently the blowing winds bring seeds of ill head health to me, as we decided to finally try sleeping with a couple of windows open last night.  I woke up with a headache early this morning, but I was also in lots of pain, so I took my pain meds, hoping they’d deal with both head and body problems.  Alas, they did not.  My headache got worse, so an hour or so ago, I crept out of the bedroom (we have to sleep with the bedroom door closed, because otherwise Frank will try to leave through the doggie door while we’re sleeping...he doesn’t want to go out during the day though) and tried not to disturb any cats who might want rush the door to get in. Leigh-Ann was still sleeping and it’s rather unpleasant to wake up to six or so cats pouncing on you.  They don’t seem to realize that they weigh more than a couple of pounds now that they’re grown.

I got out the door stealthily and walked down the hall to first get some peanut butter crackers to take back with me, because pills on an empty stomach are icky.  I greeted all of the cats in the bonus room, and as I was looking around the room at them, I thought to myself, “Gee, it would be nice if Dobby was here.  She could be hiding under the couch and I wouldn’t even know it.” It’s not a normal thought that goes through my mind, especially because I’ve seen Dobby behind the pool every time I’ve looked lately.

I walked back toward the bathroom to get my Sudafed, and as I was walking, I looked down at the stairs.  On the stairs, looking up at me was...DOBBY!!! Dobby came back on her own, through the doggie door.  YAYAYAYAYAYAY!  I didn’t know if we’d be back to square one where she was terrified of us, so I went to get the kibble bribes.  Ugh, the other cats went nuts - it’s like I’m offering junkies a free fix.  I tossed some kibble onto the stairs and she ate it normally, but when I walked towards her, she jumped through the railing into the living room.  I gave her some more kibble, then went back upstairs to tell Leigh-Ann that DOBBY WAS BACK!  When I went to the doorway to look into the hallway, she’d already made her way back upstairs and was happily mingling and rubbing up against the cats.  Well, except with Bing - she was eyeing Bing suspiciously and walking away from her.  Bing isn’t fond of newcomers, so she was probably giving off “go away” vibes.

Oh yeah, I finally made my way back to the bathroom to get my Sudafed and when I walked out with my prize (the kibble is also kept in there), Dobby greeted me at the door.  She sniffed my fingers and didn’t seem particularly afraid of me.  It looks like we didn’t lose much ground in our efforts to turn her into a pet versus a feral cat.

OMIGAWD, Dobby came back...on her own.  YAY!  (I’m still in shock) If she decides to leave again, we still have the trap in our arsenal because we didn’t have to use it to bring her back.  I can’t believe she came back through the doggie door.  I wonder if she doesn’t like the wind.  It’s the first time it’s been windy since the night she escaped and she seemed terrified then.  I hope she decides that she likes it better inside, although we did make the great outdoors pretty cozy for her.  Food, snacks, toys, litterbox, a crate...and last night, when we discovered where she’d been sleeping, we put down a towel.  I guess an actually bed or couch wins out.