The Red Stapler Chronicles

Boy am I getting sick of hearing each candidate sling mud at the other. Sadly, we do seem to respond to a negative message, so I can hardly blame them for this strategy. Oh well, since we are likely only to see much more of this mudslinging until November 4th, I call upon all the citizens of Earth to make the world a better place to live in with some simple things that anyone can accomplish. Here is my list of 20 random actions you can take to increase your personal karma and improve this planet.

1. Offer an aspirin/advil to a stranger who you overhear complaining about a headache.
2. Collect all of your neighbors empty trash cans on a windy day.
3. Offer that last piece of pizza to a friend even if you are still hungry.

4. Allow a car to merge in front of you in bumper to bumper traffic
5. Leave a penny in that tray at the convenience store.
6. Donate blood once a year.
7. Become an organ donor.
8. Hold that door for the next person.

9. Compliment a co-worker on their new hair style.
10. Give up the foul ball you just caught to the youngest kid in your section.
11. Slide over a seat at the movie theater so that the late arriving family can sit together.
12. Return your shopping cart to one of those corrals.
13. Tap your horn instead of slamming in down for 10 seconds the next time someone doesn’t notice that the light just turned green.
14. Clear your neighbor’s sidewalk of snow while your are shoveling yours.
15. Discretely point out those undone zippers and buttons, spinach stuck in the teeth, any anything coming out of the nose to those who need to be told.
16. Allow someone with a small order to cut in front of you at the supermarket.
17. Offer a disabled car a jump start, even in the rain.

18. Give a stranger some pocket change if you see them struggling to find a coin for a vending machine.
19. Let the other guy get the parking space if you both get their at the same time.
20. Send this list to at least 5 friends or else. . . Just kidding, I hate those things too.

Lately, I have been experimenting with some ways to make money off this blog without turning it into an endless collection of advertising posts. Certainly, any blogger that desires to make some money off their blog will have to confront this dilemma. As a result, I have been experimenting by using pages (instead of posts) as my vehicle to advertise a product. For example, I created a page about Free Baby Formula using an ad from Logical Media. Every time someone clicks on the ad an prints the coupon, I get an easy 80 cents. That’s right, all one has to do is print that coupon and I get 80 cents

But just making these silly pages was not enough to get any visitors via search engine traffic. Purely by accident (one of my pages ended up on my most popular posts widget since I used that page to test on browsershots.org), I discovered that putting links to these pages on my sidebar dramatically increased my results. For instance, if one were to type in Terminix Discount in a Google search, my page is currently the second result–powered only by a single sidebar link.

Of course, any link on your sidebar, header, or footer is not a single link. It is a link on every post and page in your entire blog. In my case, I have 112 posts, 33 pages, 38 categories, and 331 tags. Consequently, there are 514 links on my blog that now lead to my Free Baby Formula Page and every other page I created. Pretty powerful stuff, don’t you think. No, this is not the same as getting 514 different blogs to link to your site using the same keyword, but it’s still extremely useful.  I’m not sure if this little experiment is going to actually make me some money, but I will be sure to keep you updated.

I would urge you all to take a look at your blogs to see if you are taking advantage of this technique of internal linking.  Do you have a blogroll on your sidebar? Do you realize how many links you are giving to other bloggers (unless you made the links no follow)? Some people don’t like cluttering their sidebars, headers, and footers with a bunch of links, but I would argue that losing a little aesthetic beauty to your blog will be worth unleashing the power of this type of internal linking.

When I first started experimenting with GPT sites, I kept on hearing about a site called Deal Barbie Pays. Because of the rather “girly” name, I really never thought to check it out. I’m not sure what finally motivated me to eventually visit the site, but I am sure glad I did.

Deal Barbie Pays is a shiftcode based site that has been around for over two years. Now let me get this out of the way first, I really do not like shiftcode sites and this is the only one I will recommend. Despite this, Deal Barbie Pays has several things going for it. First, the owner of the site, Christina is very responsive to any problems/concerns/questions and is even an active member of the site’s forum. Both times I needed to contact her, my issue was resolved in less than 24 hours. In addition, Deal Barbie Pays is always fully stocked with offers to complete and is constantly adding new ones. Lastly, Christina always runs some great contests on her site that don’t just cater to the sites high earners.

So even if you would be embarrassed to be seen at a site called Deal Barbie Pays, I urge you to get over it and check it out. I know I have certainly gotten used to the funny looks I have received when cashing over $500 of Deal Barbie Pays check at my bank

Well the rumors about Google updating their page rankings after only 2 months are true. Many bloggers discovered today that they had either gained or lost some Google page rank. As for The Red Stapler Chronicles, I was downgraded like a hurricane hitting landfall from a Page Rank of 4 to a 3. Oh well, at least I was not downgraded all the way to a Tropical Depression

Although I am not exactly thrilled with this latest development, I am not going to let it bother me. Page Rank is just a number and is definitely one of the most over-rated statistics out there in the blogging world.  Still, since many are obsessed with this ranking, I offer all the bloggers out there a simple parody of a famous Bobby McFerrin song.

Here’s to those left in a fog
Wondering why Google hurt their blog
Don’t worry, keep blogging.
Page Rank is not the most important thing
Alexa is flawed and content is still king
Don’t worry, keep blogging.
Don’t worry, keep blogging now. . .

Can’t believe your page rank is gone
It even happened to Garry Conn
Don’t worry, keep blogging
Stressed about your search results
Tired of all these Google insults
Don’t worry, keep blogging
Don’t worry keep blogging now. . .

Nope, I am not going to tell you who I think won the debate. I urge you to decide that on your own and not let some television commentator or reporter brain wash you into agreeing with their opinions. Instead, this is an experiment to see how high in a google search for the term “who won the debate” I can get by creating this post. So if you think Obama won the debate, buy an Obama product and if you think McCain won the debate, buy a McCain product

When you think about the characteristics that a president must have, you probably think of good leadership, intelligence, charisma, experience, and integrity. But this list might be leaving out the most important thing–that the candidate’s name fits on a bumper sticker. Check out the following list below of the democratic and republican party candidates for president and vice president since 1968

1968 Nixon/Agnew vs. Humphrey/Muskie
1972 Nixon/Agnew vs. McGovern/Shriver
1976 Carter/Mondale vs. Ford/Dole
1980 Reagan/Bush vs. Carter/Mondale
1984 Reagan/Bush vs. Mondale/Ferraro
1988 Bush/Qualye vs. Dukakis/Bentson
1992 Clinton/Gore vs. Bush/Qualye
1996 Clinton/Gore vs. Dole/Kemp
2000 Bush/Cheney vs. Gore/Liberman
2004 Bush/Cheney vs. Kerry/Edwards
2008 McCain/Palin vs. Obama/Biden

Notice something funny here besides all the repeat names? The most letters in the last name of the eventual president consisted is a whopping 7 (Clinton). The vice president winner also followed this “rule” with Mondale setting the standard. No matter who wins this year’s election, this trend will remain intact. In addition, the last 10 presidential elections have been won a candidate whose last name has 2 or less syllables. This year, Obama has a chance to end this streak.

Here is some other fun presidential trivia:

–This is the first election since 1952 that does not include a sitting president or vice president. In all 8 previous elections in which this was the case the GOP candidate emerged as the winner

–Eisenhower is the only president whose last name has more than 3 sylables.

–This is the first election that pits two sitting senators against each other

–No matter who wins, this election will mark the first time in which a president was born outside the contiguous United States (Obama was born in Hawaii, McCain on a base in Panama).

–McCain would be the oldest president to take office (for the first time).

–If Obama wins, he will become the first president whose last name starts with O, the first whose last name ends in a vowel other than e, and the first with the initials BO

–If McCain wins, he will become the 11th president whose first name starts with J, the 5th president whose name is John.

–A inordinate 6 (if you include Jimmy Carter) presidents have been named James.