WTF, people?
I make one post entitled “Malaysia Bodoh” and my blog hits went from 5 a day to 50.
Everybody loves shit, eh?
*is amused*
Here, go look at something else:
RAISING THE DEAD, by Tim Zimmermann
At the pitch-black bottom of one of the world’s deepest underwater caves, extreme diver Dave Shaw found the body of a young adventurer who’d perished while exploring the sinkhole ten years earlier. He vowed to come back, recover the victim’s remains, and return them to a still grieving family. It was a quest that would end with vindication—or haunt the survivors forever.
A very readable piece of writing on a rather morbid topic. It’s 11 pages long but it’s hard to stop once you get started.
The Dionaea House
Eric starts a website to share the correspondence and the mystery of a friend who later vanished.
ReviewMe
This is a paid review.
Here’s one of those ideas you wished you thought of first.
ReviewMe brings together advertisers and bloggers, aka people who have the power to turn the little guys into superstars and the big guys into… never mind what we can turn them into.
The point is there’s a lot of little companies out there with a lot of good ideas that deserves attention. They’re willing to pay a certain amount of money for this attention. There’s also a lot of bloggers who wish they are as famous as Kenny Sia and get really cool review offers tossed at them all the time. We’re not, and most of us don’t have the foggiest idea how to get this to happen to us without resorting to attention whore tactics.
ReviewMe marries the two. If you’re an advertiser, you get to pick bloggers to review your product according to your budget. If you’re a blogger, the amount of traffic your site generates determines your payout per review.
For example, I thought this very blog won’t get past their minimum requirements (specifics are not mentioned) but I tried anyway (because I’m greedy and all that), and lo! Standard Issue II rates 2 out of 5 stars, which amounts to a payout of $30 after ReviewMe takes their 50% cut. The lowest amount you can earn is $40 (before cut) for a 1-star blog. The good news is that your site rating is recalculated every month. The more traffic, the higher the payout. Now if that isn’t incentive to blog more, I don’t know what is!
The layout is clean and intuitive. Text size is not emo-kid tiny. There isn’t an overwhelming number of links all over the blasted page. Everything is pretty much straightforward… so much so that I’m not going to bother with screenshots.
Another extremely good thing about ReviewMe is that you are not required to put in a positive review if you feel the product doesn’t deserve one. Constructive criticism is always gold. If you gain a rep for indiscriminately trashing everything, I’m not sure if you’ll get much business!
I am particularly keen on this point because in my experience as a reviewer, you often get pressured to give a good (or at least neutral) review. Especially if they advertise in your publication! Advertising dollars are worth more than your opinion on this side of the world!
The first drawback that comes to mind is of a geographical nature. There is no public list of advertisers but I bet a bulk of them will be American. Will advertisers hire those of us on the other side of the globe? I suppose that would depend on the product concerned. LiewCF’s first review via ReviewMe is a product that can easily be delivered through the Internet. There is hope for the rest of us yet!
Another real problem I noticed is of a technical nature. There is currently no verification process for blogs you submit as “yours”. I can submit someone else’s blog and it’ll evaluate how much the site is worth. However, in order to claim your fee, you have to submit the URL to your review, which I’m sure won’t work if it doesn’t match the blog address you provided.
The ReviewMe Support team assures me that they are aware of the problem and are working on it. So boys and girls, don’t piss someone off by submitting their URL. IT WILL COME BACK AND BITE YOU IN THE ASS.
The whole reason I was even led into this direction is because I did a search on Malaysian blogs and Yasmin Ahmad‘s blog turned up. I could be wrong, but she didn’t strike me as someone who had time for something like this.
Lastly, you are given 48 hours to review the product and post on your blog. As this is my very first review, I see no reason why I can’t deliver as scheduled. My main concern is for products that will require more than 48 hours to fully test out. Or if Real Life happens and you can’t deliver on schedule. Apart from that, I’d happily backburn my other blog activities to put a paid post on priority.
Now go play.
A Teething Problem
Missing dog, lost around Meiling Garden/Poh Kwong Park. Go here for info and photo.
Q: Why is it called “wisdom teeth”?
A: Because if you don’t get them removed, you’re a bloody idiot.
My current pain involves a rogue tooth and a physically sensitive time of the month. Eating had been a slow process the last couple of days, but the pain seem to be subsiding now. *fingers crossed*
What’s been going on with me lately? Nothing. A lot. One of the above.
I stumbled upon and joined ShutterChance. I’ve been there a week and am liking it so far… probably because I’ve been getting comments. It’s a small community yet. Over at flickr and zooomr, people rarely comment unless you’re outstanding or popular. The beauty of it is that it’s an automated system. You can upload as many photos as you like in one sitting, but only one gets featured per day. It gives everyone a chance to be seen, and makes you choose your photo carefully too.
If anyone wants to try out Vox, leave me your email. This is what a Vox blog site looks like. I have 2 invites left.
I came across a blog site called Sawlogs, which I thought is a terribly cute name for a dream blog site. I signed up and added a couple of past dreams. I don’t expect to use it much since I hardly remember my dreams, but I thought some of you might like it.
I’ve been accumulating books, but that’s nothing new or unusual here.
My current project is rewriting an old novella into a full-length novel for possible publication next year. I’ve identified a local publisher, but have not spoken to anyone there yet. Another friend is putting together a manuscript for that same publisher so I guess I’ll get the details from him. Meanwhile, anything else can happen.
I guess there’s no Nanowrimo for me this year. But hey, Nanowrimo is old news for me. No more heeming and hawing.
