I never tasted a French Wine.

I could confidently say that Indians have not been exposed to the tastes of wine. All we could get is some cheap, very cheap wine which when tasted will make you decide that wines are garbage. One would stick to hard liquor and not bother with wines anymore.

But of all the people, my son who had his first taste of wine recently, directed me to Coupon Chief, a popular web site of discount coupons from where I can find out the best wines or for that matter, best of any products.

Ok son, thank you.

Yes, he was right! Coupon Chief offers discounts for a great range of products. Looking at the range, I forgot that I am looking for a good wine and in fact could not decide on what I really want. Everything was tempting me to buy; for instance I was fascinated by the varieties of apparels on display.

Since my son was watching my activities, I reluctantly compromised for wine over apparel. Next time, I should remember to shop online when my son is not around.

Just returned from an exhibition.

It was a jewelry exhibition by Zak. This exhibition is organized every now and then and attracts designers from all parts of the nation.

All leading jewelry shops participate and display their wares. As usual, the exhibition was heavily crowded but I headed for the gold coins section. In that section, 10 stalls were doing brisk business and their sales staff was answering quite a lot of queries.

The price of gold coins varied based on the spot price that was being displayed on a big screen. I remember seeing one such in the website of Monex.

Suddenly all the heads turned to me because I answered a few questions on rare gold coins. I narrated quite a few historical facts and also showed some photographs that I carried in my notebook.

Then I turned my attention on bracelets just opposite the coins section. I was surprised to find a few persons that tagged along wherever I went. I was forced to stop and answered some questions but this time I admitted my knowledge on gold coins was due to the fact that I am a regular customer of Monex Deposit Company, an exceptional leader in precious metals for three decades.

Searching for people?

Ok, we all know how to search for a particular product that are available in a specific area. Searching products or services may be easy than searching for people.

Why?
Similar names-Go and type 'Williams' in your address bar. Do it now.
What did you get? 209 million results.

So what is the solution?
Here is a search engine that may be helpful. Free people search by zaba.
I just tried it and compared my search for the same in Google. Zaba made my job easier. The search result provided the list of names with addresses too.

Like Google, Zaba is just a search engine and not a database.

There is an interesting link there. Click on 'Your location' at the bottom and enjoy the result.

Innovative Krillion.

I could hear the sigh of relief from the citizens of San Francisco. Thanks to the new product based search engine Krillion, they can now find out who is selling the Amana Refrigerators in their area.

Krillion Localization Engine scours the Web to find, integrate and present actionable local search results for the ready-to-buy consumer durables such as home appliances.

To verify their claim, I did a Google on Amana Refrigerator and it produced 790,000 search results. I repeated it with Krillion and it gave only 29 results and the stores that sell Amana are all located within 25 miles of San Francisco.

Since it’s February 2007 launch, Krillion has generated over 275 million pages of relevant local search results displaying local product information for major appliances in over 40,000 U.S. cities and towns that has never before been available through search engines.

You can search for other products too such as dryers, washing machines and ovens. More products will be added soon.

Rounders template and adsense.

I have been watching the AdSense ads on this blog and man, what a disappointment!

I am seeing only two ads by Google most of the time and one of them is Google AdSense itself and the other is about 'Ibibo'. I already posted an article on 'Ibibo' and there is no need to mention about the futility of participating in it.

Oh, yes that Google ad about 'Desmartini' is the third ad. I think I attribute for the lack of ads that are relevant to the post is the Rounders Template in the new blogger version. It used to be better in the classic version.

But I saw a major shift in relevant ads when I modify this template to a three column one. Just make a study about this and give your feedback here. I hope to learn a few tricks.

Before I make any money on AdSense, I would like very much to see relevant ads by Google.

Can you earn from Agloco?

No has been my answer well before all the hype that surrounded it one year ago.

Based on my past experience on similar programs, unless you have a huge downline and you spend a minimum of 10 hours daily, it is near impossible to earn from programs like Agloco.

The first hurdle will be their minimum payout. The second drawback is the country you live in. If you are not living in the U.S., then chances of seeing more ads are very less.

Definitely you increase the chances of getting infected if you use the view bar. You just can't prevent the viruses to affect your PC.

Here is an interesting post about earning from Agloco and earning from their forum. In fact all the posts in his (Alex) blog are very interesting and useful.

Pay him a visit.

Thank you Sara Orem.

After quickly finishing my brunch, I rushed off to attend a seminar on ‘Changes in Teaching Methodology’ where I was invited as a guest speaker. It seems my 20 years of teaching experience is recognized in certain sectors though I don’t view myself as an expert.

In the just concluded exam results, some of my students scored state ranks and the news papers published their photographs along with their marks scored and where they studied. This made people look up and invited me as their guest speaker.

When my turn came, after expressing my gratitude for the opportunity to speak among scholars, I explained that my teaching methodology was based on the four Ds- Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny. Then I quoted Sara Orem, PhD, an adjunct faculty member at Capella University, an accredited, fully online university and her book titled ‘Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change’, that has been my inspiration.

Like me who has my own coaching academy, Sara too Orem is the principal of her own coaching firm in addition to serving as a faculty member and coach in Capella University’s School of Business and Technology.

At the end of my speech, I gave the audience the web site address of Capella University which is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), Ncahlc.org.

Answering a few concerned queries, I assured then that the cost of continuing education online is comparatively less than attending regular classes in other universities.

This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

The best Free Ads.

If you are looking for free advertisment media, then there is only one and that is US Free Ads.

I am very familiar with them and used their services quite a lot about 4 years ago when I was a professional internet marketer. Your ad will be published instantly and the traffic depends on the ad content and format.

Placing a classified on USFreeads couldn't be easier!

1. Login to your existing account or register for a new account
2. Select the category you'd like your ad to be shown in
3. Select the type of ad you'd like to create (HTML or text)
4. Type your ad content
5. Preview your ad and make any changes
6. All done - your ad is live!

There is also a premium version where members will be allowed to upload a photo also and can insert' paypal' buy button.

Visit OSWD for a free web design.

I just stumbled on to this fantastic website which offers over 2000 web designs and templates for free.

It Is called OSWD-Open Source Web Design. It is a collection of web designs submitted by the community that anyone can download free of charge!

The Open Source Web Design project was founded in September, 2000 by Francis J. Skettino. The goal was to provide the Open Source community with quality web designs to help get people's projects on the web in a way that is both organized and good looking.

Even they may not be aware of my immense gratitude. This is what I have been looking for. I can added content to any website or blog but designing is the hardest part for me.

I tried my hand many times but simply it was a worthless job.

No more derivatives trading.

Enough! There is a limit for everything. I cannot continue to pump in funds only to see it fast disappearing in to oblivion. Even my share broker has warned me not to trade in anymore and in fact he asked to retire from stock market trading.

But I don’t want to give up. I need to recoup the losses. May be I should change my investment advisors. Or shall I unsubscribe from all those stock recommendations news letters? Because, I found out that the tips to which I heeded from these newsletters, let me down along with my bad luck.

I think I will shift to options trading. My friend has been telling me that options trading involve fewer risks but still in order to make a profit, I need to use the options trading software that identifies the highest return option trades.

The workings of that software may be too technical for me; all I have to do is learn to operate the software and take actions according to its analysis.

PowerOptions offers me the convenience and control required to automatically sort, filter, and analyze all 2,900+ optionable stocks and 190,000+ options online to find investments to meet your profit goals.

Yes, that looks good and promising.

Here are the color codes.

On countless times, I wished I had created a particular color after being impressed looking at others' blogs.

Though I have sharp sense for colors, I never knew how to create such a color. Today, when I read the feeds from Betabloggerfordummies blog, I came across a tutorial that explained how to change the color in any part of your blog.

He wrote about iconico.com, from where one can pick up any color. They offer a free toll using which you can create any color you want. They give you a virtual magnifier too that can be used for advanced color mixers to select a spectrum of possibilities.

I happened to find some free tools in iconico.com that includes easy login and easy read.

Just Anothr Feed Reader.

No, I did not make a spelling mistake-this feed reader is really Anothr.

Though I am not very particular about RSS reader, I like to review these feed readers. I read feeds through my email only.

Features of Anothr:

• Subscribe your favorite blogs, news, sports, stocks, entertainment…
  and much more to your Skype/Gtalk/MSN simply
• Just-in-time notification on your Skype/Gtalk/MSN
• Web-based management and sharing
• No software installation and registration, just add the bot as your
  contact

The features may be the usual ones that you find in every reader but I like their user interface. It is simple and uncluttered.

Above all, it is free!

I traveled with the cargo.

Man, the world has changed and changed for the better. What a lot of facilities and luxuries we are enjoying today.

I still remember the day I moved to Madras some 21 years ago. I was asked by the transporting company to accompany the goods in that lorry itself. And do you know the reason for it? He said I have no proper papers to show at the check post and that I am used as a live paper.

And today, at just the click of a button, you can order the services of Long Distance Moving Companies who will do everything for us. They will pack all the items neatly, load it into the container and deliver it with in the promised date.

They will even unload and unpack at the new address and we can watch all of these actions without moving a muscle.

The ever dependable Service Network recently announced its quick and easy moving company matching system with the help of their network of movers who are selected after their applications are thoroughly processed.

Have you joined blo.gs?

Blo.gs is the shortest url that I know. And it is owned by yahoo.com

Ok what it is about? Is it a blogging community? Is it a blog directory?
In their own own words, "this is a directory of recently updated weblogs and tools for tracking interesting weblogs, in the spirit of services like weblogs.com and blogrolling.com.

If you run a blog, you can ping this directory using the ping form or the other methods listed.

I just used the usual ping form and pinged it or you can say I tried to ping. The next page showed this message,"Refresh requested: http://blogavenues.blogspot.com/atom.xml".

Simply I don't know what is that supposed to mean. Have I been pinged or does it require more information or is there a bug?

Advance your blog traffic.

I once a prize for the most active participation a manual traffic exchange which was also the number one visited traffic exchange in the internet at that time.

But, it has been years since I used a traffic exchange to promote my websites. But must admit that they are very effective in bringing fresh visitors daily.

I once became a member in a blog traffic exchange, but never fully utilized it; in fact I should say did not even log in after my registration.

If you are interested, you can have a look at Blog Advance, a blog traffic exchange web site.
BlogAdvance is a community built by bloggers for bloggers. Once you join, you're a part of the community, and as such, can ask for anything.

12 rolls of film consumed.

Forty years ago, the marriage of my aunt went on for 3 full days. In those days, none of our customs were compromised.

The entire marriage function was divided into 6 sessions of two every day. We used to have huge crowd numbering about 700 people. You can imagine the organizing it took to conduct a marriage for 3 days satisfying all the 700 people.

Still, at the end of it, there would be murmurs of dissatisfaction from a few corners. Mostly it will be related to not appearing in a special photographic session. Oh, that reminds me to tell you about the ancient camera that the professional photographer used.

He would not have had any difficulty in choosing the best of wedding cameras his studio provided. In those days, all cameras require a flash. To cover the entire marriage, he consumed 12 rolls of film each yielding 36 snaps.

I wonder what that photographer will say when he looks at this beautiful floral camera!

This costs only $5 at shopforweddings.com

Are you still pinging?

Ok, agreed, pinging is very important and we must do a ping after every post.

But do we do that really? No, I will say. Not even once in 3 months, I go to my favorite pinging service and do it. If at all I do it, I may do for a couple of my blogs only leaving the majority unpinged.

Lazy man, pure lazy! Oh, call me lazy woman, pure lazy!

Even though pinging takes only a few seconds per blog, I don't have the patience as if I have some other urgent work to attend. And I call myself a blogging coach and can you believe that? Yes, I train a few through email but nothing technical. It is too hot for me.

Got any news for me in blog promotion? I simply love to try out new ideas in blog promotion.

Pay you to blog.

The exact url is http://payu2blog.com. I did submit my blog (not this one) twice to them already for approval but as they say, I did not hear from them again if my blog is not up to their expectation.

But I have introduced them to many blogger friends of mine and all of them are working for payu2blog.com. I am glad I have been useful again.

This blog was submitted to them for approval 4 days ago and I am happy that it met with their standard. But, so far I did not see any paid blogging assignments. I don't mind. I have all the patience in the world.

The member area is simple and they pay weekly which is welcome by bloggers.

Errors and Omissions allowed.

Don’t translate the subject line literally but you have understood the inner meaning correctly.

I am sure you might have seen “E&OE” at the footer of the typewritten letter. It means ‘Errors and Omissions Eliminated’.

But do you know there were several incidents everyday that involves travel agents getting sued due to small errors they make such as an incorrect departure date? Even a slip and fall by a client of yours can make a travel agent vulnerable to legal issues.

So, what is the solution for Travel Agents who take all the pains to provide a pleasure vacation for us? Is the so called Trip Protection applicable only for travelers?

Professional Liability Insurance provided by Travelsafe.com gives valuable coverage for owners and employees of travel agencies and tour operators in the event of any errors and omissions claims.

Errors & Omissions Professional Liability Coverage is comprehensive and affordable that travel agents can bank on. While it won’t fully absolve of all your errors, your risks are considerably minimized.

The coverage is wide and I have cited only an example above. For other details you are requested to visit the link above.

Ways to check your passion for blogging.

"I know that the right people will show up in my life at the right moment under right circumstance."

This is one of the many affirmations I repeat daily to make my subconscious mind to believe it literally so that it manifests in my life.

Just when I started giving my attention on the comments that my blog posts get, I suddenly saw a few positive comments and I too took real interest in giving my feedback on the posts that I read more regularly than I write my blog posts.

Exactly after a week or so, I stumbled on to this superb blog by Blog Bloke. This blog is one that every blogger should read. I am very happy to have found this blog and I would strongly recommend you to subscribe to his feed.

Here is what he says about the how good a blogger you are. I am just quoting 2 of his ten points as examples.

"1. Within a few minutes of publishing a post, you are already checking for new comments and your stats for traffic to your blog. You are extremely disappointed that nothing has changed so you check back again a few minutes later (just to be sure). Damn!

2. The last thing that you do before going to bed and kissing your soul mate goodnight is to check for any comments on your blog. Afterwards your mate reminds you that forgot to kiss him or her goodnight."

I confess, thats what I started doing already.

Thank you Bloke!

Get reviewed by this blog for free.

Well, you have heard about various exchanges such as:
Technorati favorite exchange
Link Exchange
Stumbleupon exchange

Have I left out anything?(smile)

Here is another exchange and it is Blog Review Exchange.
Sign up for free, submit your blogs that get listed along with your blog's PR and Alexa rank.
Browse blogs on same topic and request exchange of reviews.

The interface is user friendly and smooth to navigate. Blogs are listed under a wide range of categories. The idea is good and can be very useful in gaining link popularity.




Yes, this badge is a 'must display' if you want to use their review back services.

A comprehensive comparison and grading.

Even though, I put marks on my students' test papers, I don't judge a person's maths skill by his marks alone. In fact, I don't give the marks any weight at all.

Like that, I don't put great importance of Google PR and all those ranks. If my blog is read by 10 people daily, I would consider as a big achievement. I know there are 2.2 billion blogs in the Internet and a readership of 10 is fantastic to me.

Go to Website Grader and give your url if you are serious about finding the overall grade of your website or blog.

I analyses the following parameters:
Google PR
Alexa rank
Technorati rank
Inbound links from Google, Yahoo
Number of pages indexed by Google
Bookmarks in Del. icio.us
Digg submissions

The report also looks for a few SEO aspects like meta keywords and meta description.
If you like the report, you can discreetly look into your competitor's urls too.(smile)

I thank Blog Bloke for having introduced me to this website grader.

May I teach Michael Weston?

Reading detective stories during my college days launched me on to great fantasies that I am able to keep alive even today. Being a typical Gemini, I used to be impressed by every heroic deed that I read and imagined myself to be one such.

Do you know that such wild imaginations helped me win several essay competitions? In fact, I was even offered a position as an assistant play writer for a leading drama producing company. Alas, my conservative family members did not allow me to hone my writing skills.

When I heard about the ‘Burn Notice’ TV show that is scheduled to go live on 28^th June, how I wished I could come up with solutions that challenges the CIA agent Michael Weston who suddenly gets the dreaded ‘Burn Notice’ which literally means he is completely blacklisted as unworthy to be employed as a detective agent.

Be it a novel on paperback or a TV serial, these kinds of stories always aroused immense interest among the readers and viewers. Remember the novel, “Bourne Identity” by Robert Ludlum in which the hero is hunted down by every espionage organization including his own employer?

Jeffrey Donovan, who stars as Michael Westen, must be on cloud nine already having bagged the coveted role that every other actor will vie for. How he uses his extraordinary training and survival techniques will soon be the talk of the nation and I foresee several episodes may soon be copied in cinemas of every languages.

Created and written by Matt Nix, USA Network's Burn Notice combines the best of the action/thriller elements with surprising humor and an iconic new breed of spy.

It is very sad that I can’t enjoy watching it sitting in India.

Google's view on link exchange.

Without checking the veracity, I reproduce here what I read in a few places: "Google doesn't give importance or weight to reciprocal links."

But why? Can anyone of you come up with a valid reason.? Then all the blog rolling and networking are just wasted effort?

I have a blog on education and I certainly can link to a blog that speaks about student loans. I can say in my blog that I read blogs that write about students uniforms and places that are fit for an educational tour, recommended books to read, paying guest facilities available in Virginia and so on.

Well, the Boss says and all we can say is , "The Boss is always right".

In my experience, I consider gaining one way link is more favorable than reciprocal links.
The best ways to gain one way link:
Signature on forums.
Comments on blogs that follow comments.
Directories.
Blog reviews.

Oh, I forgot; social bookmarking is the most preferred method but it is a cumbersome work. Considering this as an opportunity, I offered my social bookmarking services some time ago in the market place in a forum.

The response was not all the encouraging but a few that trickled in were completed by me to their fullest satisfaction. Since, then, like coins collector, I collected various social bookmarking websites in general category as well as some unique niches.

I really enjoyed the work. I am still available for anyone who would like to post their website or blog in nearly 100 social bookmarking websites.

Blog carnival:Second Edition on money blogging.

Welcome to the June 16, 2007 edition of Malathy.

Eric Stanley presents Getting Money to Finance Your Purpose in Life posted at Personal Finance Blog Articles.


Don presents Affiliate Marketing for Beginners | AffiliateWatcher.Com posted at AffiliateWatcher.Com.


Allen Taylor presents Steps to Financial Independence posted at Investing World Today.


uni presents Agloco has Launched it?s toolbar! FREE money maker! posted at You Deserve More.

That concludes this edition.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of malathy using our
carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

malathy, blog carnival.

Monetize your blog with FAN.

FAN-Feedburner Ad Network places the sponsor ads in your feed and pay you on CPM.

This blog was approved by Feedburner some time back and about 5 days ago, I received an email that there is an ad is pending for my approval to inserted in my feeds. The ad was from Norton and I immediately approved it.

Two days before, I was asked to approve another advertisement and this is a different one. Sure, I approved it.

The rate is about $5 to $10 per CPM. It is not the money that mattered to me. I considered it as honor to be invited by Feedburner.

I heard that Google is owning it now-is it true?

Play song and get paid.

On 10th May, I wrote a post titled, "Music Widget pays you".
Two days after my post, I received an email from owners of Poptopus.
In that email, the webmaster told me that he searched for his own website in the internet and found my blog post referring to them.

He promised me that once they launch, I will be invited. He kept up his promise and sent out the invitation today. I was asked to sign up for the beta and you can see the widget in this blog at the right side bar.

Yes, still some of the links are not yet ready in their website but the widget works. You can try it out and give your feedback either directly to them or to me.

I am invited by Bloggers Circle.

Just when I read the latest email update from Deborah Ng in which there is an article about the advnatages of being a guest blogger, I received an invitation from Hamrash of Bloggers Circle as a guest blogger.

I quote Deborah Ng here:
"Blogging isn’t for the shy. If you want to call attention to your blogs, you can’t be afraid to make yourself heard."

I am grateful to Hamrash about the opportunity and I feel honored. I made my first post in his blog a few minutes ago and I sincerely don't know if I did it correctly.

For inspiration, I wanted to read other contributors' work but didn't know how to search for them in bloggers circle. The contributers' name are hyperlinked to their profile only.

Become a publisher of adster to earn money.

Like Text Link Ads, here is another way to monetize your blog.

ADster is the new way to buy and sell flat-rate text advertising,
person-to-person. ADster directly connects advertisers looking to buy text
advertising with web publishers selling targeted adspace. ADster's
Network of web publishers range from smaller niche-market sites to sites
that rank in the top 100 most visited sites in the world.

ADster allows you to make money by displaying unobtrusive text ads that
you approve for the amount that you specify on any of your website's
pages.

To start displaying text ads on your website, just follow these simple
steps:

Go to Adster.com and sign up for free.

Log in to your account at https://www.adster.com/account/
Click "Manage ADster Panels"
Click "Get Code"
Paste the code into your website

That's it! Your ADster Panel will appear on your website wherever you
placed the code above.

See the demo at the right side bar in this blog.

If you care, share it with other bloggers.

A new adsense revenue sharing opportunity.

There was a comment on one of my previous posts entitled "A different kind of...." and the comment was made by a "Tony".

This is his comment:
"Google does not reccommend doing Ad rotation anymore. Instead, they suggest implementing revenue sharing using AdSense APIs.

There are several sites now offering revenue sharing using Google AdSense APIs. http://www.indiastudychannel.com is one of the first few sites....."

So I looked up at his website and it is an educational portal providing reliable and comprehensive information on educational institutions in India and abroad. Students and parents can find information on colleges, schools, universities, examination results, educational announcements, events and news.

My son was interested to know about other colleges that offer B.E. in computer science. There was only few colleges listed and he was disappointed that his college was not in that list.

Oh, sorry, I deviated from adsense revenue sharing. Unlike various other adsense revenue sharing programs, this website does not rotate adsense and you are actually given a separate web page when you contribute with an article. Then, one can apply for adsense with that web page.

However I wonder what does Tony means "Google does not recommend doing Ad rotation anymore".

Easy bookmarking with social poster.

Take a look at the side bar. You will find a button 'Social websites poster' under 'bookmark me' title.

Just click on it!
Done?

Ok, what do you see? You will find thirty four different social bookmarking services with a three links beside each service-Register, Login and Post.

Advantage:
From a single web page, you can post to all the listed social bookmarking web sites one by one without leaving the web page. All you have to do is fill up the form with title, url, text and tags.

Not your style? Ok, go to http://socialposter.com
Drag and drop the 'Social Poster' button in your browser tool bar.

Now visit this blog again please.
Highlight any part of the text in the body of any blog post.
Now go to your browser tool bar, click on 'SocialPoster.com' and see what happens?

Yes, you will see the form got filled up automatically with title, url and your highlighted text. You just change the tags and start submitting it to the social bookmarking web sites.

Pretty easy but I am sure 'Only Wire' is truly for lazy peoples like me.(smile)

Thank you mashable.com for the insight!

Americans are lucky people.

People of other nations are not that lucky as Americans. You will believe it when you have a look at this exclusive Online directory that not only lists the best of business houses in America but also presents reviews of various products.

And the reviews of the products or services are written by consumers like you and I. This instills a sense of honesty to the reviews because they are based on direct experiences.

Atlist.org is a leading web directory providing consumers with local and nationwide company information along with the ability to read and write reviews about local companies in order to make informed consumer decisions.

One can first click on the ‘browse by location’. For example, if you ant to find all the educational institutions in Mississippi, first, click on ‘Mississippi’ and on the next screen, click on ‘Education’. Being an academician, I was interested to know about their ‘Education Directory’, so I did exactly that and I found as many as 108 listings under ‘Education’ in Mississippi.

I am aware that real estate businessmen are always on the alert to look out for ways to advertise their services. Atlist.org can be an ideal platform for them to list their offers.

One can find a big list of categories in this online directory, from dermatologists to dog kennels, real estate brokers to research institutes, and museums to auto manufacturers-you name it and they have it.

I wish such directories exist in India too.

This is a sponsored post.