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This week we have lost an icon in the music world.  While many people have mixed reactions to Michael Jacksons passing, he was truly an icon and made an everlasting impact on culture.  Personally I do remember two different Michael Jacksons; the first being the “King Of Pop” and a legend in the music industry, then there is the last decade and a half.  The last decade and a half was more about Michael and his personal affairs and some strange behavior on the stars part, but its greatly over shadowed by his work in music and dance.

I am appalled by some of the terrible things I hear people say.  Remember in this country that one is innocent until proven guilty and fact remains, prosecuting teams never could get a jury to believe a crime was committed.  Remember Michael Jackson for the music and performer he was, and not the scandal supercharged by the media and rumor.

To pay tribute I wanted to post one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs but most were restricted by the poster.  There is one I found however that I that was really cool, most may have already seen it.  Its thriller done by a 1500 inmates at a correctional facility in the Philippines.  Typically you don’t think of inmates doing anything to constructive in prisons but watching tv, lifting weights and fighting gangs.  This video is about a year old or so but what a tribute… In an unexpected way.  R.I.P. Michael Jackson

 Today a comment was posted on an entry I wrote long ago about Google Adsense and I wanted to repost it front and center because I would love to get a good discussion going on advertising and making money from your blog.  Read it below then ad your comment if you have something useful to contribute!  Thanks

Jeff Wrote…

“Hi, I’m some what new to adsense and can’t seem to get traffic to my blog I’m also unemployed and can’t afford adwords http://jeffb-jobs4u.blogspot.com/ and there’s links to my other blogs there some what backlinks and still I’m not making more that a couple pennies a week”

And my reply…

“Hi Jeff, thanks for commenting.  It took this blog about 8 months before I ever started getting any real money from adsense.  It started out with just the random click here or there.  But just before I stopped using adsense this blog was making more than enough to pay for it self, actually it would pay for itself in under a month’s time; the rest of the year was just income.

Ad placement is the key thing to making it work.  Using the right size ads and making them seem to be a part of your websites color and layout is almost equally important.  I had written about a topic on my blog that exploded with search engine traffic and Google was placing the relevant ads in the places provided to them by me.  It was a great system once it got going.

I ultimately stopped using Adsense however.  The problem was that the people promoting something that I didn’t believe was an honest offer were getting their ads placed on my site through the Google adwords programs, since this is one way people involved in this were taught to promote and recruit.  I even blocked those particular advertisers from being able to post on my site.  I promptly started receiving notices from Google that I was losing income by having these advertisers blocked.  Soon after I think one of the advertisers must have bitched to Google or something.

My advice would be to not look only at Google Adsense, there are many great programs out there that let you take control of what you place on your site.  That way, if for instance Google is placing ads for a person or group of people that are ripping people off or misleading them, you don’t allow your site to be a place for people to see them.  You can make money with Google, I have done it, but it just takes time and experimenting around.  If something isn’t working, change it up.  Use the channels in your ad setup so you can find out what is working and what isn’t.   Don’t be afraid to try something new either!

Thanks for visiting, you got your links in your comment but I will add to the blogroll as well, maybe I can turn a little traffic your way!  Keep me updated on how its going too!

Today I have tried once again using Google to search out information on a town for some family history.  Well after looking at the 8^th page of results and still seeing nothing more than canned data on generic websites that are meant for nothing more than trying to get you to click on ads I gave up. I always thought the right hand side of the page was for non-organic paid submissions that were advertising or selling products and the results on the left were for organic relevant information.  25 times I must have seen results that say “Find Hotels in This City”.  Sad thing is it’s a town of 100 people and it has no hotels. 

Searching for information on cities in Google has proven to be a total waste of time.  Just for fun I tried with many other cities and get the same thing.  Anybody got any good search engines recommendations that don’t flood you with crappy advertising pages in the results when searching on cities and towns?

Today I read an article on Foxnews.com that I found humorous.  Probably almost everyone has received the robocall from a telemarketer telling you that your car warranty is about to expire, more than once even.  This was a unsolicited calling campaign started by four individuals and the companies they run.  Today’s article is about how these people have hit with a civil lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission for their illegal activities.

The losers behind this scheme ran an operation of robocalling that would flood a area code and prefix with the unsolicited calls offering a product wrapped in lies and deception.  These peoples operation called millions of cell phones, people registered on the do not call list, and even 911 call centers.  I do some work in communications on the side and have personally felt the effects of these people far beyond just the calls to my cell phone.

Have you ever wondered who the jackasses were behind the scheme that flooded you with these calls?  Well, they are Christopher D. Cowart of Fort Lauderdale Florida, James A Dunne and wife Maureen of Daytona Beach Florida and Damian P. Kohlfeld of Valparaiso Indiana.  Collectively they run Transcontinental Warranty, Voice Touch and Network Foundations, the three companies that put the scheme in motion.

I applaud the FTC for taking action and hope that justice is served and these clowns are never able to harass millions of people again.