Apr 17 2008

Survivor, Entrecard and Stuff

Published by at 1:04 am under Entrecard,random

Hey, remember me? πŸ˜‰

Crazy busy here in my “real job” and things are likely to explode further in the next few weeks. But, apart from neglecting this here blog, I have been very organised and doing all the things I should to be doing – so yay for me :) .

I have a couple of half finished posts in draft. Inspiration strikes, then busyness distracts. But really – are you interested in a post about glossophobia or my opinion on whether the toilet paper should roll over or under?

Yes, it appears that to blog consistently one needs inspiration, motivation … and time.

My RSS reader is over flowing. Apologies to all who I haven’t visited. Time to declare RSS bankruptcy again (except for your posts, okay πŸ˜‰ ).

I got up the nerve to visit my feedburner account, to check if I still had any subscribers. Man you bunch are hardy. How is it possible not to post and simultaneously grow your subscriber numbers? Have I stumbled on a secret formula, or did you just get sick of visiting – heh?!

And can someone tell me what’s the go with Entrecard? I have be seriously neglectful in dropping – I got logged out and I even had a period of time when my own card was displayed because I’d been too slack busy to approve any ads. Then when I did log in, the price to advertise on this blog was 512 credits! The most drops I’ve had in a day all month was 26, so how is the cost to advertise being determined? It’s now at 128, but I did get a screen shot.

Entrecard Blogpond

Any enlightenment gladly received. And take it from me don’t buy unless it’s waaay under 100.

A Couple of Links

Many thanks and hugs to Lightening for the Blogging Mentor Award (sorry I haven’t been around there much).

For anyone following the state of play in the online search and directory space, Vishal has an (8,000+ word) in depth look at the main competitors and some thoughts for SensisΓ’β€žΒ’.

Neerav did a comprehensive wrap up of day 1 and day 2 of SMX Sydney (if you look really closely you’ll see me playing peek-a-boo behind the podium). He also wrote about the the possible cloaking by Flight Centre, which looks to have been explained (see the comment by Colin Bowman, GM Marketing Flight Centre Limited).

Nice to meet you, albeit briefly, Neerav and well done on your thorough coverage :).

NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Oh survivor – I nearly forgot! I had a chuckle with this email today. No idea of the original source. I’m sure some of you would relate πŸ˜‰

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of ‘pretend’ bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment . He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care (weekend, evening, on a holiday or right when they’re about to leave for vacation). He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

Each father will be required to know all of the words to every stupid song that comes on TV and the name of each and every character on cartoons.

Each man will have to make an Indian hut model with six toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4 year old to eat a serving of peas.

Each man must adorn himself with jewellery, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep their nails polished and eyebrows groomed. The men must try to get through each day without snot, spit-up or barf on their clothing.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must try to explain what a tampon is for when the 6-yr old boy finds it in the purse.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

He will need to read a book to the children each night without falling asleep, and then feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair each morning by 7:00. They must leave the home with no food on their face or clothes.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child’s birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor’s name. Also the child’s weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labour, each child’s favourite colour, middle name, favourite snack, favourite song, favourite drink, favourite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

They must clean up after their sick children at 2:00 a.m. And then spend the remainder of the day tending to that child and waiting on them hand and foot until they are better.

They must have a loving, age appropriate reply to, ‘You’re not the boss of me’.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.The last man wins only if…he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment’s notice.

<insert witty closing at this point> πŸ˜€

14 responses so far

14 Responses to “Survivor, Entrecard and Stuff”

  1. Ianon 17 Apr 2008 at 3:34 am

    The entrecard thing was to do with a change in their pricing model. It works by doubling your price from 2 for each ad already approved or in your queue for approval. So if you have 5 ads approved or waiting, the price will be 2x2x2x2x2 = 64 credits.

    My price shot up from 300 odd to 8192 …its settled back to 256 now.

    I believe the prices went crazy during the changeover in the pricing model – everyone snapping up cheap ads. Some ads got as high as 250k credits!

    Ian’s last blog post..Travelling

  2. Colin Campbellon 17 Apr 2008 at 8:34 am

    Yes I noticed the Entrecard thing. Mine went from 30 to 36. Ha Ha Ha. Must be something along the lines Glenn Stevens is trying to do for the housing market and inflation.

    I lived Survivor for four years, so I think I might do ok. I am practicing this week before going back to work next week.

    Always good when you are self employed and really busy. Unfortunately it usually translates into more invoicing and follow up.

    Take care in your hectic life.

    Colin Campbell’s last blog post..What? Nae Haggis?

  3. Kathie M. Thomason 17 Apr 2008 at 12:01 pm

    There are so many things for bloggers out there – how do you choose which to participate in and which to ignore? I haven’t even gotten into the Entrecard thing yet and I still don’t get Twitter or Digg. And then overnight I got an invite for SocialSpark.com – have you come across that one yet? No wonder we all feel so busy, busy, busy and that’s without our ‘real’ jobs πŸ˜‰ You’re doing ok Meg.

    Kathie M. Thomas’s last blog post..Blogger Appreciation Day (Unofficial)

  4. Kelleyon 17 Apr 2008 at 12:14 pm

    I missed you. Desperately. But every time I was about to send out a search party I would see you pop up at Aussie Bloggers or my place.

    I am crazy busy too at the moment. Are you getting the biatching emails too?

    Kelley’s last blog post..Arsehats everywhere.

  5. Burgoon 17 Apr 2008 at 2:17 pm

    “Have I stumbled on a secret formula, or did you just get sick of visiting – heh?!”

    That’s about the 5th time someone I read has noticed this Meg; apparently it really *is* a good way to grow your subscribers!

    Well. For some. I took a week off due to work, and hardly noticed a difference.

    Sigh… always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

    πŸ˜›

    Good to see you back, sorry we didn’t run into each other at SMX… next year!

    Burgo’s last blog post..Thursday Music Round-up – Matthew Ryan, Josh Ritter, New Atlantic & The Kooks

  6. Neeravon 17 Apr 2008 at 2:31 pm

    thanks for the links Meg :-)

    Shame you had to dash to work after only chatting for 2-3 minutes

    Neerav’s last blog post..Day Two Recap – SMX Sydney SEO SEM Conference 2008 (6 comment/s)

  7. Gregon 17 Apr 2008 at 7:34 pm

    Hmmm sounds like sci fi to me. Where are they going to find one man like that, yet alone many?

    Greg’s last blog post..The Pier at Victoria Dock

  8. jenon 17 Apr 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Meg as if we’d desert you for not posting too much recently! This is exactly why RSS feed readers are so fantastic. I still remember the days where I used to religiously check my blogroll.

    I love the Survivor scenario.

    jen’s last blog post..Talking the talk

  9. Bettinaon 18 Apr 2008 at 12:19 am

    BAHAHAHAHA

    Lurv the survivor thingy!

    Bettina’s last blog post..Hot Hunk Thursday!

  10. cellobellaon 18 Apr 2008 at 12:39 am

    We missed you… and I know I know the Entrecard thing. Needless to say I was MOST surprised to find my card costing over 1000 ecs one day.
    :)

    cellobella’s last blog post..Wideacre by Philippa Gregory

  11. Megon 18 Apr 2008 at 11:17 am

    Ian – thanks for that explanation. That doesn’t really make sense. I’m guessing they’re trying to get publishers to approve ads more quickly, but how do you know if the site is *worth* that much or if they’re just slow at approving ads?

    Colin – I bet you’ll cope admirably :)

    Kathie – I totally agree, you could seriously invest all available time and not exhaust the possibilities. I guess you need to pick the ones that work for you, and that you enjoy. What you get back is usually proportional to the time and effort you put in, though I guess some more than others. Yes, I did get an invite for social spark – haven’t ventured there yet.

    Kelley – thanks babe :) No biatching emails here – you seem to exhausted the quota πŸ˜‰

    Burgo – I was looking out for you at SMX, but it’s hard to identify someone from a fuzzy 150 x 150 avatar!

    Neerav – still nice to put a face to a name :) No probs for the links – I’m sure many will benefit from your comprehensive notes.

    Greg – πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ Sounds like Colin would be a contender…

    Jen – thanks! Yep RSS is a godsend (but also a curse!)

    Bettina – glad you enjoyed, I was hoping I wasn’t the last to receive it.

    Cellobella – thanks! Yep really bizarre reasoning, IMO.

  12. Burgoon 18 Apr 2008 at 11:27 am

    Heh… yeah, I suppose that avatar needs to be changed. That said, I had three people come up to me “who recognised the cheesy grin” (not sure how to take that), so something must be working! πŸ˜›

    Burgo’s last blog post..Live Music Friday – Alex Dezen of The Damnwells, Live at Hotel Cafe

  13. JBourneon 19 Apr 2008 at 3:22 am

    You tricked me big time.

    For a second I thought you had inside information about the next season of Survivor, but totally got disappointed.

    That idea sounds interesting though. I’m sure a studio exec will get a hold of the e-mail and steal the idea.

  14. Jasmine Shaneaon 19 Apr 2008 at 4:20 pm

    The whole thing about Entrecard is that they are trying to make some ‘improvements’ to the advertising scheme as well as change some of the nitty gritty to make Entrecard ‘better’. Why I put it in question marks is that many of us bloggers who use Entrecard feel that it has caused some confusion. Oh well… this happens when we rely on third party sites. lol. Welcome back to Entrecard! Hope you have been well. Take care!

    Jasmine Shanea’s last blog post..Jasmine Shanea’s Entrecard Appreciation Day (April)!