Google CPA?

Rumor has it that Google is in the process of creating a CPA based advertising engine. Basically that means that instead of paying per click, you pay each time someone does an action, which is usually a purchase. This completely removes the risk of advertising, 100%! Is this a good thing? NO! If you can make $10 from someone entering their cell number on your website, any idiot can bet $9 on Google's CPA ads and is guaranteed to profit, because they won't pay that $9 unless they get paid the $10.

That will cut the profit margin of all affiliates to nearly nothing! Also, how are they going to even track CPA ads? If they want you to place special code on the order confirmation page, just put it on another page that users don't go to and you just got free advertising!

There are too many loopholes, too many issues, and too many things at risk. Leave it as cost per click, do a better job with click fraud, and let the world continue as is!

Nightmares of Yesteryear

I remember at time when I was younger, about 9 years old, when going to sleep was something I did not even want to think about. It wasn't what was happening when I was actually asleep that scared me; it was the terror I experienced in the agonizing moments leading up to actually falling asleep. It is a bit difficult to explain through words what I felt.

I would lie in bed, looking up at the ceiling. Suddenly, it would feel like the ceiling was rushing away from me without making a single sound. Then, already in a panic, I would look around the room. The same thing would then happen to the rest of the walls. I would be left in the middle of an infinitely large room, alone and afraid.

Nothing would stop the feeling. If I stood up and walked around, I felt dizzy and afraid. The only thing I could do was lay in bed and hope that sleep would come soon.

Sometimes it still happens. Once a year or so, while I am lying in bed, the walls will suddenly rush away from me. I hate the feeling.

Another interesting thing that would happen during sleep at around that age was how I felt in my dreams. I would always feel my body was filled with lead, causing me to barely be able to move. Once, I had a dream I was in the middle of a war, going through the trenches. I would hear the bombs going off and the bullets barely missing me, but I would barely be able to walk.

On top of that, I also couldn't keep my eyes open during my dreams. I also felt very sleepy. Imagine the terror I felt hearing bombs going off around me and not being able to run away or even open my eyes more than halfway to see what was going on.

This happened for years - close to a decade actually - and I never did figure out why.

Outgrowing Blogger?

I've been using Blogger as my blogging platform for almost 3 years now, but I am definitely feeling the growing pains. The fact that changing a header or something on the side requires me to republish my entire blog makes me very uncomfortable.

Being a programmer, I definitely appreciate the simplicity of having include pages for the general layout of a site, so that any changes won't require each and every page to be updated. This also slows things down dramatically, since I have to wait around 10 minutes to make a change to my entire blog.

I was thinking of moving to WordPress since it is the only free alternative that has proven itself. I don't think I can't easily port all my entries over, especially since I have a lot of links from other sites to individual posts. I am also worried about how easily Google and other search engines will crawl my new entries. Google obviously has no problem with Blogger, so that has really helped my search engine ranking.

Maybe I can keep everything as is, but have all new articles be on WordPress. Does anyone have an experience they can share regarding moving blogging platforms without causing too much headache?

Evolution (or Revolution?) of CornerBLUE

This past week has been extremely exciting for me. A few business deals went through and things are finally looking up. I have been spending a lot of time researching searching engine optimization and different ways people make money online.

In the "real" world, you can't really be netting $100,000 a month unless you have a big staff of employees, a good amount of repeat customers, and low overhead. Even with all these, there is a lot of stress involved. You have to deal with customers not paying, bills from vendors, employee performance, and cash flow.

In the radical world of the Internet, there are people making insane amounts of money without ever having to deal with customers, vendors, or rent. The web market looks exactly like it did in 1998-1999. I hope this time around the growth has some foundation, unlike the flimsy bubble of yesteryear.

How does this affect CornerBLUE? Well, in short, CornerBLUE doesn't have to stay a "custom programming" company. Its name is flexible, and so is its role. Maybe one day it will become a holding company, or maybe not. We'll have to see what happens next.

As for now, I am trying out some affiliate programs to help compliment my income, along with working on some very lucrative business partnerships that, if all goes at least somewhat according to plan, should pay back handsomely.

Let's see if AdBrite will make me happy =)

Who Wants Some Office Space?

No, not the movie. I have a 600 ft² office with a 300 ft² room that I am not using. You will have your own lockable door that is accessible from the main office space. You don’t have to sign any long term contract.

Features Include:

- Private lockable room
- Fully furnished with brand new furniture
- Electricity included
- New carpet
- New Dell 2.8 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM PC running Windows XP Professional
- Dell 19" Monitor
- High-Speed DSL
- Brand new fax machine
- Brand new coffee machine
- Brand new mini-refrigerator
- Brand new microwave
- Fully air-conditioned to your liking
- 3 times per week janitorial service
- Free reserved parking space in a secured subterranean garage
- Security guard on duty during office hours
- 24 hour access
- 2-camera security system inside office that is being recorded remotely
- Use of my phone line and fax line for all local and national long-distance calls.

If you would like to have your own private line, you must pay for installation and monthly fees (I recommend using a cell phone instead).

Deposit:
No deposit for the office space. There is a deposit for the furniture (required) and the computer and monitor (only if you choose to use the provided computer and monitor)

All this for $720.00 a month. Email me (or post a comment) to schedule a visit.

(monitor not shown in pictures, but it is included as stated above)

What's Better Than Free?

In trying to expand my income streams, I was researching top searched phrases on overture. Here are the top 15 results that contain the word "free":

1. free porn
2. free game
3. free music downloads
4. free sex
5. free online game
6. free ecard
7. free stuff
8. free ringtone
9. free credit report
10. free
11. free dating
12. free myspace layout
13. free music
14. free porn movie
15. free porn video

Considering Jeremy Shoemaker made over $130,000 in one month from a ringtone landing site, it can only mean one thing: There is a lot of money to be made from "free", you just have to be willing to spend time researching and experimenting (while possibly losing money).

By the way, even though I already have a private blog that I write about my daily business experiences, I am planning on making chaparyan.com almost exclusively a business oriented blog, blogging about random articles, news, etc only on occasion.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Here are 3,000 words to keep you busy:


(courtesy of The Daily WTF)


(courtesy of Davezilla)

and yes I know the second one isn't real, but this one is:

New Jersey Government Shut Down!

At first I thought it was a joke, but apparently this is 100% true. The governor of New Jersey signed an executive order to shut down the state government. What catastrophe caused such a drastic measure?

Corzine, a Democrat in his first year as governor, said that he felt compelled to sign the order after he and the Democratic-controlled Legislature could not reach agreement on his proposal to help balance the budget by raising the sales tax to 7 percent from 6 percent.

Wow, really mature New Jersey, really mature.

State parks and beaches will soon be closed. The DMV is closed. Courts are closed. State lottery tickets are no longer sold. Casinos might soon be closed as well. I'm glad to see the always sensible state of New Jersey knows how to solve problems.

By the way, the really interesting thing is that most news sources haven't covered this. Google News yielded one article at the time of this post. Apparently, no one gives a shit about New Jersey

Links to stories:
State of New Jersey Website
1010 WINS Article
Herald Tribune Article