Back on September 1st, I promised a very special viral links post to those who left a comment. I had almost forgotten about this!

The deadline was September 5th, and only three people left a comment, which means the only suitable format for such a viral story is haiku! So, without further ado!, here it that very special Blossom haiku:

Rantbits run aground:
As Mike snaps a fast photo,
Contest Blogger blogs.

Despite my earlier optimism at getting the design work done on my eCommerce site, I am still working on it.

You see, I had a design I was reasonably happy with, as I mentioned. Not quite what I had hoped for, but workable I thought. Well, Phil didn’t like it. And, the more I got to looking at it, the less I liked it as well.

I tried a number of variations and never really like any of them. I would visualize something that looked great in my mind’s eye, but looked very very bad when I tried to implement it.

As I mentioned in the aforementioned post, I was also trying for a more feminine look, which was the big thing that was complicating matters. Everything I tried that should have worked, didn’t. I was getting gaps where there should not have been gaps. And, when I managed to eliminate the gaps, I was 3 pixels off in aligning the different parts of the page. To some people, 3 pixels may not seem like a big deal, but it was visually unappealing. It would have appeared as though the site was not well-designed, in my opinion.

Still I was stuck with either gaps or being 3 pixels off. This portion being the top of the page with the logo, it really needs to look right! The other option was to go back to a block form, which would have been more masculine and less feminine.

So, I reverted to the block look, but it was too large and didn’t fit the design of the rest of the page very well. I had to modify the design, eliminating things I really wanted in there. The cartoon me being one of the items that had to be left behind. I made the logo smaller, resulting in a thinner (height-wise) header. Still, it wasn’t visually appealing.

I went off surfing various shopping sites that were geared primarily toward women. You know, sites with women’s shoes, dresses, purses, etc. One thing that was missing in many of them was a background, which was one of the things that is supposed to be something that female web surfers prefer! Go figure. Anyway, I came across one site that was using a layout that was similar to a layout I had used on a website I worked on earlier this summer.

I redesigned the top of my page to use that style of layout, and I think it works! Now, I have to tweak the rest of the design to better fit. And, since the header is now not as feminine as the initial planned design (that didn’t work out), I’ll have to try to feminize the remainder of the page a bit to make up for it.

Plus, I’ll be adding a couple features that I wasn’t planning on adding yet, but I had too much whitespace and adding links to these features fills and balances it nicely. Of course, that means more work on the backend of things. Sigh.

It was my hope and plan to get this completed before September. I had hoped to have it done, as it should help get me to my goal as it would have given me four full months before the end of the year. Then, I could move on to other projects.

As it stands, this is consuming a lot of my time. On top of that, the delay has put the current website in such a shambles that it takes me a lot of extra time to get orders taken care of, and about 2/3 of people are abandoning their orders! Argh, growing pains!!!

Still, it is better to get things done right, rather than putting up a new substandard website that may steer away even more customers. Better to stick with the broken one you have then to replace it with another broken one, especially after you’ve been telling customers how much better the new site will be! If you tell customers you’re working on a new site, and then put one up that’s bad, that’s certainly worse than sticking it out a little longer with the existing site and then replacing it with something that is much better than the old one. They’ll wonder that if you took so long on the site and all you came up with was another lousy site, how long will it be before you fix that!

But, that’s enough on that for now as I have more work to do!

Alex of A Blog that Lies has reviewed me again. Thanks, Alex!

He first reviewed me here and his current review is here.

Overall, it’s a positive review. But, should I be worried about that, since it is A Blog that Lies? Hmmm.

After reading the blogosphere the past few days, I think there are more than a few bloggers that could use this little pick-me-up.

Begin Again

Every day is a fresh beginning,
   Every morn is the world made new;
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
   Here is a beautiful hope for you–
   A hope for me and a hope for you.

All the past things are past and over,
   The tasks are done and the tears are shed;
Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover;
   Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,
   Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

Yesterday now is a part of forever,
   Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight;
With glad days and sad days and bad days which never
   Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight,
   Their fullness of sunshine or sorrowful night.

Let them go, since we cannot relive them,
   Cannot undo, and cannot atone;
God in His mercy, receive, forgive them;
   Only the new days are our own.
   Today is ours, and today alone.

Here are the skies all burnished brightly,
   Here is the spent Earth all reborn,
Here are the tired limbs springing lightly
   To face the sun and to share with the morn,
   In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

Every day is a fresh beginning;
   Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
   And puzzles forecasted and possible pain,
   Take heart with the day, and begin again.

–Susan Coolidge

Wow! Lewis of Lewis Empire has taken my Viral Story Tag challenge to a dark and dangerous place, crafting a gritty “viral noir” detective story that’s a must-read! The other six challengees better bring their A-games!

Read part one here:
“A Dark and Stormy Night - The Setup”

Here are all seven challengees again, lest any of them has forgotten!
Doug | Chris | Chris | Ann | Erina | Lewis | Joanne

Just when I thought I was caught up (on blog duties anyway), I remembered that I had been tagged with the Nonsense Story Meme and haven’t done that yet!!! Soon, I hope. Soon!

I was already started on this post when I remembered that, so I will finish this one. As you may already have noticed, I have posted a page of “Viral Blogs” which contains my categorized list of blogs for use in creating viral stories.

Rather than keeping it only on my hard drive, I figured I would post it to my blog, but as a page rather than a post. That way, you can always view my updated list (and so can I!). I figure it will also be helpful for bloggers to know if they’ve made my list, and to notify me if they’ve linked to me and I missed them. So, be sure to check it out.

I’ll also point out a few new additions here. JD copied my list and added her own to a post on her blog. So, I grabbed her additions and added them to my own. Plus, I’ve added a few more that I found this week.

PEOPLE
ZIFF - The Blogger Who Asks Stupid Questions

PLACES
Places Remembered and Imagined

ANIMALS
Blogolope

PHRASES & THINGS
All Things About
Blue Beaver Beer (from JD)
Change Your Thoughts (from JD)
Comedy Plus
Grow Rich Along With Me!
Home with Heather
Into the Inkpot
Life in Vegas
My Thoughts
Not Available on MySpace (from JD)
Tina’s Treasured Thoughts
Totally-Useless.com

THINGS
Domestitchery (from JD)
Cheap Eats (from JD)
Internet Marketing Mind
Lunch in a Box (from JD)

TITLES
Patrick on Music

As I wrote last week, I have an Apple Newton MessagePad 100 and an eMate 300. For the benefit of those who may also have some variety of Newton, here are a few useful links.

NewtonSales.com
They have a small selection of stuff for your Newton. I found them while looking for battery options for the Newton. They offer a Newton NiMH Battery Refurbishing service for your Newton 2000, 2100 or eMate. You might want to give their service a try if you don’t want to do it yourself. (I haven’t used their service; I haven’t yet decided whether to attempt it myself or not.)

United Network of Newton Archives
Looking for software for your Newton? The UNNA is the best place to start. They seem to be among the last remaining Newton archives available and they are also claim to be the largest.

PDA-Soft
Looking for help with your Newton or other PDA? Check out PDA-Soft. They have a good selection of useful information, including detailed instructions for taking apart your eMate 300 so you can fix (or repair) the hinge, hopefully before it slashes the display cable.

I said that I’d write about the Newton eMate 300 in a future blog post. Well, this isn’t it. But, until then, if you want to learn more about the Newton eMate 300, read Tommy Thomas’ article, “My Great New Writing Machine: An Old Newton eMate 300,” on Low End Mac. It also provides some useful resources for current Newton eMate 300 owners.

Earlier this week, I received two awards, both of which recommended passing the award on to other deserving bloggers.

Tonight, I am pleased to present the “Blogging Star Award” to five fine bloggers. This award was presented to me by Erina Hart and was created by Barb of Skittles’ Place. It is “for bloggers who shine their light throughout the Blogoshere. Some do it with humor, others with creativity, and others with their kind and thoughtful natures.”

And, now for the presentation of the “Blogging Star Award.”

Mike Goad. As I have done in the past, Mike is now also writing about his spam. But, that’s not the reason for his award. Mike has interesting content and is helpful too. I asked him about the software he used for stitching his photos together, and he eMailed me within a short span of time with the details. Be sure to visit Mike’s blog, Exit 78.

Thomas R. Clifford a.k.a. Director Tom. Director Tom has a lot of great tips and information that he shares on his blog. His post, “Here’s My Secret to Capture the Perfect Interview,” will be of particular interest and usefulness to anyone that does any video interviews, whether online or offline. Be sure to visit Director Tom’s blog, Director Tom - Bringing Brand to Life!

Michael Kwan. Despite the fact that he and Ed Lau did not choose my totally awesome domain name for their hockey blog*, he does offer some good tips and insights, especially in the realm of freelance writing. Check out his recent post, “Freelance Writing Jobs For Everyone.” And, be sure to visit his blog, Beyond the Rhetoric, because he has a looong way to go to catch up with John Chow’s traffic.

Terence Chang. Terence offers a lot of insights on a variety of topics, from business to blogging to travel to photography. He frequently shares a number of his own excellent photos. He is currently travelling throughout China, so his blog postings are limited by his occasional access to the Internet. Still, he continues to share stories of his journey and post interesting topics, including his most recent post, “Make money online + made in China - Lie to survive.” Be sure to visit his blog, Terence Chang - Almost A Billionaire.

JD. She does things so you don’t have to. You know, like go to a nude beach and be stared at by fully dressed people, so you don’t have to! Definitely deserves some kind of award for that experience. Be sure to visit her blog, I Do Things.

And now, I am pleased to present the “Totally Fabulous Award” to 10 terrific bloggers. This award was presented to me by Ann of A Nice Place in the Sun. It was created by Ann of A Nice Place in the Sun and Christy of Totally Fabulous! The award is presented to deserving bloggers for being “fun, cool, and of course Totally Fabulous!”

And, now for the presentation of the “Totally Fabulous Award.”

Rich Gilchrest. Read his post on “How To Add Wordpress 2.3 Tags To Your Current Theme.” If you use WordPress, you’ll be needing that post in about a week and a half, so be sure to bookmark it! That alone was enough to merit an award, plus he’s from Ohio and a libertarian, so we’ll give him some bonus points for that. Be sure to visit his blog, Aiming for Independence.

Joanne. Last but not least, because “p” is for procrastination, and keep it out of the pool too, thanks. She writes poems, she loves quotes, she reads, she likes scifi, and she has stopped biting her fingernails. She is Totally Fabulous! Plus, I just owned her with four links in one paragraph–I think that puts me way ahead in the points battle. Be sure to visit her blog, The Laidback Buddhist. Five links. Owned!

That concludes this evening’s awards ceremony. Congratulations to all the winners!

*If you want to know what my domain name suggestion was, send me an iPod Touch. Thanks!

Are you making money off the videos you post online?

In my “How Nerdy Are You?” post of August 25th, I linked to Weird Al’s “White & Nerdy” music video. You’ll notice that I didn’t link to a copy of it on YouTube.

For one thing, on YouTube, it is frequently not the original artist who has uploaded their video. In many cases, the videos you see on YouTube are no doubt infringing upon the original artists’ copyrights. Recently, Prince announced his intention to sue YouTube.

For another thing, the artist doesn’t make any money off of their YouTube videos. By contrast, everytime you watch the Weird Al video, Weird Al is seeing some change go into his pocket.

Revver, the site where Weird Al chose to upload his videos, pays the artist for each video view, because of the ads that run as part of the video. As of this past Thursday, they have paid out $1 million to their artists.

How much have you earned from your YouTube videos?

Blogger Justine of Tasty Blog Snack (one of the blogs you’ll find on Blogs O’Plenty) made $5,000, according to a report in USA Today.

Those Mentos/Diet Coke guys you’ve seen on TV made $50,000, according to the same report.

Blendtec made $15,000 from their “Will It Blend?” videos, one of which I linked to in my “iPhone Powder” post of July 16th. Guess they more than covered their costs for the iPhone, no? Wonder if they got their $100 rebate?

In the USA Today report, “Posters reap cash rewards at video-sharing site Revver,” you’ll see that some of these artists put their videos on both YouTube and Revver. YouTube gives them exposure, while Revver gives them money.

You’ll note that Blendtec pulls a triple whammy. They used YouTube to build an audience, but if you look on their own website, the embedded videos are at Revver, not YouTube. Additionally, the videos are designed to promote their blender. So, whether you watch the video on their site or buy a blender, they are making money.

If you create your own original videos and post them online, leverage the audience of YouTube and the payouts of Revver to maximize your potential with your videos. Even if you don’t have a product to sell, you can still leverage the two sites to earn some income from advertising.

At last, I have beaten Doug in Technorati. Doug has been blogging longer than I have, and I’ve passed him! He currently stands at 91 and I am currently at 92.

Just a month ago, he was at 90, and I was at some painfully low number.

Of course, now that I’ve linked to Doug in this post, I’ll probably push him up to 92 and we’ll be tied.

I have also surpassed ChrisBlogging.com, who broke 100k when I had only recently broken 200k.

Not that any of this is a competition. These are just personal milestones that I had. Doug had 90 ever since I started watching Technorati ratings. I was curious as to how long it would be before I ever hit 90. And, then I started moving up, and Doug remained stagnant, so I wondered if maybe I might be able to overtake him.

Similarly with Chris. When he broke 100k, that seemed so far away for me. Even in this past week, it seemed to be dragging. But later in the week, it popped ahead.

I remember when I rebranded my blog, I was worried when I would build my Technorati rank back up to 4! It took me so long to get that 4, that I was concerned. But, one day later, dcrBlogs.com hit 5!

Now, the challenge is to stay ahead of Joanne, who keeps gaining ground.