Random Order Weblog - Nothing’s too random!

Several years ago when I first began to work online I noticed that free web directories were a relatively untouched area in terms of building links to a new site. As most people who work in the search engine optimization and internet market fields know, building links to a website is probably the best way to improve your search engine rankings. Typical directories, such as the Yahoo web directory, generally charge a nominal fee for a listing. Sometimes, as is the case with the Yahoo directory, these fees are recurring, either on an annual or yearly basis.

Lately, however, there have been a growing number of web directories that offer free submissions. These sites have become increasingly popular as people have started to realize what a great source they are for building link popularity.

How do free web directories work? The concept is fairly straightforward. A free web directory is basically a collection of links to quality websites where the links are organized by category. This, in theory, makes it easy for people to find the kinds of web pages they are looking for quickly. And, again in theory, because these sites are all manually approved (that is, to be listed, your site has to be approved by an editor), the quality of the websites will be higher than what you might find in typical search engine result pages.

I personally submit my new websites to a large number of free web directories whenever I start out on a new project. It is relatively time consuming, but it generally seems to be worth the trouble because of the large number of inbound links you can acquire in a fairly short period of time. In my opinion, free web directory submissions is still one of the best ways to build links, particularly for new sites that have not yet become established.

Recently I added an online arcade system to one of my forum sites that lets the members play games online for free, and the scores are stored so the players can actually compete with each other.  People have gotten really into it and there are tons of new games / high scores on a daily basis.  I was surprised (at least to a certain extent) by what a huge hit the arcade was, so I started looking around online and found out that there are actually a huge number of websites that are entirely dedicated to free online arcade games and gaming.

When you think about it, it is a really cool idea.  In the “old days,” you had to go to the arcade to get your game playing fix.  Today, you just have to connect to the internet, type in the address of your favorite arcade site, and you are playing right away.  Not only that, but as I mentioned before, most of these web sites actually let you play the arcade games for free, and store your results.  I think it’s really pretty cool.

With that in mind I am considering launching a new free arcade site, but before I get myself too deeply involved I am going to ask around and see what other people think about the arcade sites in terms of being a profitable market niche.  It seems to me that the sheer addictiveness of the games and competition associated with having your scores stored would make the arcade sites a huge hit.  And, as most of us in the internet marketing world know, when something gets traffic there is always a way to monetize that traffic.  Still, I want to scout things out a little bit and make sure I’m not just too far behind the curve on this one.

So we are currently in the process of remodeling the kitchen and are having a debate on what kind of flooring we should use. I personally like bamboo flooring whereas Karla is all for cork flooring. To me, the bamboo style of flooring has a more natural feeling about it and to be honest, it kind of puts me in a relaxed mood. I don’t dislike the cork flooring, it’s just that I don’t like it as much as the bamboo.

Karla on the other hand is a big fan of the cork flooring. Similar to me, she doesn’t have any problem with the other option (in her case bamboo flooring), it’s just that she really likes the cork. So far we’ve only seen pictures online so I guess we’ll probably have to go in and see what the different types actually look like when they are actually in use before we make a decision.

As always, another factor will be the price. We are already breaking the bank by remodeling the kitchen right now, particularly since we just bought the house, but I guess when you are taking on projects like this that improve your home you can’t really waste money by upgrading because it just increases the value of the house overall… that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it, at least as long as we keep spending so much money on ‘home improvement’ .

If any of you reading have any tips on which option is better, please post a comment and let me know. We will be doing our research and even plan on setting up a little chart listing all the pros and cons of both bamboo and cork flooring, so feel free to contribute by letting me know anything I might be missing in the comments section here…thanks!

My grandma up in Oregon is considering getting a reverse mortgage to help her pay the bills. For those of you that have dealt with them before, you’ll know that reverse mortgages can be really complicated. In the United States, after the age of sixty two you are considered a senior citizen and this often makes you eligible for a reverse mortgage, as I understand it. The basic concept is that instead of making monthly payments, the “would be monthly payments” are added to your debt in the home (like a home equity line of credit, or HELOC loan) Furthermore, many seniors will choose to actually receive money instead of making a payment (thus the term reverse mortgage) and have the money they receive be added to the debt amount. For a lot of older people this kind of mortgage sounds really appealing. They aren’t going to be around forever, they know that, and they want to enjoy life as much as they can while they are alive. A reverse mortgage could potentially help them do that.

What I am most concerned with is that I would hate to have my grandma end up in some tricky deal that robs her of her hard earned home. For that reason, my family / father and I are going to make sure she finds a good attorney in her area that can not only help her find a good reverse mortgage lender, but also help her understand exactly what the deal means for her. This way we will all know exactly what she is getting into before it happens, and we will also have the comfort of a lawyer advising us to make sure we don’t mess anything up.

In the mean time, my farther and I have been doing our best to read up on reverse mortgages as much as we can on the internet. Luckily, as with most subjects, the internet seems to be rife with just the kind of information we’re looking for.

My roommate Chad and I have been hanging out at the apartment a lot lately while I work online and he looks for a job.  He has been playing a lot of poker and stuff like that online, but lately he’s gotten more into bingo.  It started when he heard from some ad that he could enter a free bingo tournament for cash prizes.  He entered, and did fairly well.  He didn’t win any cash, but he was close, and it was enough to get him hooked so he has been playing ever since.

At first he just used the site that he was linked to by the advertisement, which seemed to be pretty good, but lately he’s been finding a lot of new bingo sites that are trying to enter the market by offering amazing deals and cash prizes.  I always thought that playing games like bingo, etc., online was a waste of time, but according to Chad he’s making quite a bit of cash and having fun while he does it.  He sits with his laptop in the living room while we are watching TV or just hanging out and plays nonstop and seems to be having a great time.

I’m thinking about checking out myself, but I haven’t yet.  Probably just because I haven’t had the time.  Work has kept me so busy that Karla’s starting to get mad at me for being on the computer… she’s usually pretty good about that, so when she does get mad I know I’ve been working a little too much.  To her anything online or on the computer with me is work, so I’ll probably wait a few weeks until things slow down or until she isn’t around ( ) to start playing bingo at some of those sites Chad has been telling me about.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot more shopping online than I used to.  The reason?  It’s easier.  I can sit in my home office and order the things I need without having to get up, get in the car, and drive into town.  Not to mention that I would then have to deal with finding parking, dealing with the nonstop traffic of San Francisco, etc.  I’ve been doing some shopping at an online mall called “All Needs and Wants,” which  has been great because they have such a huge range of products.  Not only do they cover virtually everything, but they also have a closeout sale going on where there is a store wide discount.  Furthermore, everything at the store is always on sale.  You can find pretty much anything—the products range from apparel to TV sets to musical instruments.

Which reminds me, I’ve also been spending a lot of time listening to MP3s lately.  Some of the stuff I listen to is free—like the Webmaster Radio broadcasts—and some of it costs money.  When I’m going to buy MP3 related products, I always check out the Discuss MP3 store.  They offer discount MP3 products that are always on sale, just like at the All Needs and Wants store.  There are closeout specials, discount products, and just general good deals available.

All in all, picking a store online is usually a good decision.  Like I said earlier, it is a huge time saver.  Furthermore, you can compare prices and shop across a huge number of products at ease.  Searching features make it easy to find what you are looking for—no longer do I have to go ask an employee what aisle the product I am looking for is on… I just enter the name in a box, and boom, I can find the sale price immediately.

The summer is coming to end. Most people are sad, but for me, this means it’s cheap travel season. I’ve been thinking of taking a trip to London. I visited London several times when I lived in Europe, but it was limited to the airport to transfer. I would love to take the time out to spend a week or two seeing the historic sites and enjoying the scenic beauty of London.

I’ve been looking into my options, and it seems that SAS is offering some really good prices at the moment (something to do with their company’s birthday). As my friends constantly remind me when I talk about this, London is an expensive city. I’ve been thinking about that as well, and it looks like the London Pass is a great way to save some money when you visit London.

I’ve also spent some time planning what I’d like to see. There’s a really cool website (actually The Official Website for London) that helps in this area. They let you enter in your location of origin and then have a site that is custom / tailored to meet your needs. The site has hotel bookings, tourist passes, exhibition information, and tons of other ideas for tourists.

With the London Pass and the SAS combination, I think the trip can be done fairly inexpensively. Browsing the official London site I can also see that there are other savings available for the cost conscious tourist. I’m guessing it’s like it was when I lived in Copenhagen—a place that can be expensive if you aren’t careful. Just like Copenhagen, it seems that if you know where to go, and if you plan ahead, there are deals to be found and the trip can be done without entirely emptying my savings account…

I’m great at a lot of things, but I have to admit that plumbing isn’t one of them. So recently when I realized that the water in my kitchen sink was still sitting there an hour after I’d pulled the plug I knew it was time to call in a professional.

Now, I had tried some of those at home fixes for clogged drains. Most of them claim to unclog the grease and grime within seconds, leaving you with a fast draining sink. Maybe I didn’t read the fine print on the bottle where it must have said that it only works in 9 out of 10 cases.

Regardless I’m smart enough to know when it’s time to call a plumber. I just didn’t know which of the plumbers in my neighborhood would be willing to come out on a Thursday evening without requiring that I hand over my arm and leg for payment.

So I did what anyone who has never called a plumber does, I looked in the Yellow Pages under “plumbers.” Before this point I would have guessed that any of the plumbers I called would suggest that they come out and have a look before giving me a quote. Actually some of the plumbers I called did just that. They wanted a few dollars as soon as they stepped foot in the house even before peering down my kitchen sink drain.

In the midst of all these plumbers who didn’t want to know my opinion on what the problem was, I found one who welcomed my input. I told him that I was sure it was a common household plug, a rich combination of grease, hair and whatever grime I had scoured off my lasagna dish lately. He said he’d be right over and quoted me a price. The price actually included his coming out in the evening.

This prince of plumbers was over within the hour and had my kitchen sink flowing freely in no time at all. It was well worth the few dollars it cost to know that a professional still listens to the opinion of the people who know nothing about plumbing.

I need a new mobile phone. I should probably sound excited about the prospect of getting myself a new piece of technology but I’m not. The reason is simple – there are just so many choices when it comes to mobile phones.

I decided that I’d choose a new phone the most logical way I could think of. I went online to compare mobile phone deals. I narrowed my choices down to a few phone with several different companies and then decided to compare mobile phone deals from each place.

I made some progress with that method and came to realize that I liked a lot about the Nokia phones. What I didn’t realize at first was how many different models of Nokia phones are out there. For someone with little experience picking out a mobile phone it’s a bit daunting to say the least.

So I decided that I’d continue my research by looking at Nokia mobile phone reviews. If I’m going to be using my new mobile phone on a day-to-day basis who better to ask about it than regular people? I could go to a store and ask the salesclerk for his or her opinion on Nokia phones but generally if someone is getting paid to sell something they are going to tell you it’s the next best thing since Alexander Graham Bell made it possible to talk in two different places.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many sites had Nokia mobile phone reviews. I read through a few dozen and didn’t find it hard at all to choose a model. After that it was back to compare mobile phone deals until I found a carrier with a good price plan. Now I’m all set, except I have absolutely no idea how to email myself the pictures I’ve been taking with my phone.

Have you ever opened your mobile phone bill to see a number that looked more like your monthly rent than a telephone bill? I did and I have to say I almost threw my mobile phone in the trash. I wanted to get mad and call the mobile phone company but I was reasonably sure they’d tell me that if I didn’t like the bill I shouldn’t be talking on the phone as much.

Instead I decided it was time to find some cheap mobile phone deals. There had to be a better price plan out there than the arm and the leg I was paying each month.

I knew that the best approach would be to do a mobile phone price comparison. If I looked at each carrier’s service packages and then find cheap mobile phone deals that would fit my budget, I could start saving money.

I quickly realized something though and that’s most of the money spent is going to be in the fine print. When you do a mobile phone price comparison one company might look like the better deal. This was where my problem was. The company I was using charged a low, flat monthly fee, but if I talked over the number of minutes they gave me, or outside the free calling hours, I was paying a small fortune.

Now I’m using a new carrier. When I did my mobile phone price comparison I realized that if I wanted to save money each month I was going to have to spend more each month. More on my monthly basic rate that is. So now I have a plan that costs a bit more per month but I’m saving because I’m not paying any extra fees for calling after hours or more than I’m supposed to according to the fine print.