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Amazon Shipping Fun

Eric — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:05:19 +0000

I recently placed an order with Amazon.com, and today UPS dropped off 6 boxes! Wow! I didn’t know I ordered that much stuff! Surprisingly, 5 of the boxes were awfully light

So I cracked open one of the boxes

The suspense was killing me… what was in these boxes???

Part of my order included 5 packs of Lithium AAA batteries, which they decided to put each pack in its own box. In the end, my giant pile of boxes looked like this:

Luckily I had Amazon Prime, so shipping was free… otherwise, this would have cost a fortune!

I have to wonder why they did this… maybe it was a restriction on the product, or they were just being dumb.

Florida Vacation

Eric — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:47:16 +0000

We’re wrapping up our annual pilgrimage to Florida; this trip was one of my favorites, as we didn’t try to get to the Disney parks every single day.

Once the kids got home from school on Thursday, we started our drive down. I drove until about 3:30 or 4:00 the next morning, then slept for 45 minutes while Laura drove. Then we switched back and I finished the drive down. We stopped in St. Augustine along the way, but didn’t have time to do much. We walked around a bit, then Laura took Becca & Jason up the lighthouse, while Morgan & I stayed below (she wasn’t tall enough). We then continued through the worst part of the trip: getting through Orlando. I think it took 3 hours to get through Orlando. We were all very cranky after that, then we checked in to Orange Lake and settled down.

Saturday morning we were slow to get started, then had to go to an owners meeting. Long story short, we sold one of our units here, and bought another. They threw in some bonuses, which means I now have way too many vacation options! Also, because we own the equivalent to 5 weeks / year (we have a 2-bedroom unit, and now a 3 (floorplan shown)), we’re also invited to 3 days, 2 nights whenever the Orange Lake company buys or builds another location (and rumor has it, they just bought a place in Hawaii!). What’s nice is we can trade much easier now, with more flexible check-in dates and more flexibility with what type of room we get (1- to 4-bedroom).

Sunday morning I went for a run, then we spent the day at Islands of Adventure. The park was pretty crowded, but the kids got to go on all of the Dr. Suess rides. We had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe, which was pretty good. Good enough to bring back 1/2 of our dinner to the condo to enjoy later.

Monday I was up early again, but this time to play some golf. We played Crane’s Bend at Orange Lake. It was a nice course, and getting out at 7am meant nobody was behind us and we were able to take our time. On one hole, I think I found 6 golf balls! I definitely walked away with more golf balls than I came with. When we got back from golf, we went to River Island to spend the day lounging poolside in a cabana. The girls got braids in their hair while Jason and I laid on floats and rode the river throughout the River Island complex.

Tuesday I woke up to go to the gym, but found out it opens at 7am. That was too late for me, so when everyone woke up, we headed to Universal Studios. While Laura & Jason went on the Simpson’s ride, I just hung out with the girls, waiting for the kids zone to open. We all went on the ET ride then hung out with Curious George, Barney and Fivel.

Wednesday was just like Monday, only I played the Legends Walk course and we had a cabana at the new West pool, rather than River Island. It was more of a family-friendly pool, and closer to our unit so we were able to take a break from all that relaxing back in our room.

Thursday I went for another run (5 miles) and saw an armadillo while I was out! You don’t see armadillos when running in Buffalo. Now we’re heading to Downtown Disney for some shopping & dinner. Then pack up, and take 2 days to drive home.

Photos & videos will be added soon, as soon as I comment on them & geotag them all.

2009 Goals & Resolutions

Eric — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:26:54 +0000

Here they are… my 2009 goals. While I probably should be more concrete with them, it’s a good start. I just have to remember to keep revisiting this list to make sure I’m on track.

Affiliate Marketing

Continue building sites that are related to my niche – it’s taking me way too long to build a site. And as I make improvements on the latest one I’m working on, the older ones get ignored.
Build a site that takes advantage of a holiday – I completely ignored Christmas in 2008, but was shocked at my Amazon sales. Where were these people coming from? I still don’t know. Back in July I thought Doko was going to be big at Christmas, but I was wrong (hence I never developed that site). I should’ve looked at Bakugan – those things were sold out in all the stores around here, yet somehow my son (who lost all of his right before Christmas) ended up with 17 of them by the time Christmas was over. Talk about a big seller.
Figure out how to make Twitter work for affiliate marketing – I talked about this before, and actually relaunched my syndicator on Give2Students. Since I turned the DonorsChoose account over, I still managed to raise $5,495.41 for classrooms across the US. Not bad for 3 weeks.
Build a site that has a viral effect to it, where people market the site for me – I actually have a plan for this one, and hope to launch it in the summer of ’09. Lots of planning for it, though. I’ll be amazed if I get this one done this year.
Network more – Affiliate Summit in Boston was great; I have a feeling Vegas is going to be even better. I’m also looking forward to making it to a 202 meetup in Toronto but not until March (January I’ll just be getting back from Vegas, and February I’ll be down in Florida).
Incorporate – LLC or S-Corp? I still don’t know.

Fitness

Keep on track, run more often, workout heavily (just showing up isn’t enough anymore).
Eat better, including small, sensible meals and protein supplements.
Get the full cashback allowed from our healthcare program – that’s $1,000 in 2009. They pay us for doing things, like going to the gym, eating right, and getting an annual physical.

Finance

Max out IRA
Continue to pay down debt.
Open (and fund) 529 savings accounts for my kids
Transfer car payments into a savings account for the next car: our family van will be paid off in a few weeks; instead of spending that money, I want to save it for repairs & maintenance or a down payment on our next car. (of course, I have a $750 repair to pay for today. ugh.)

Other

In 2009, Christmas falls on a Friday; I want to take off from Dec-24 through Jan-3. Real time off, without worrying about work stuff.
Ideally by September of 2009, I’d like to only be working while the kids are in school or in bed. I know there are some people who work 14-18 hours a day and make boatloads of money; I’d rather spend more time with my family, but still make good money.
Stay off IM all day long: it’s really distracting. Even if I set my status to DND, I’m still disturbed.
Read more… whatever. Related to marketing or pleasure reading, it keeps the mind sharp and helps me relax. I should also do some sort of puzzle regularly… like Suduko.
Be more organized. My desk (and my PC desktop) is a huge mess. I’m going to get help for this… that’s where Laura comes in. I should take before & after pics

I’ve got more goals this year versus last – here’s hoping I’ll achieve them all! Happy New Year!

Reviewing 2008

Eric — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:58:47 +0000

With 2008 wrapping up, and 2009 right around the corner, I thought I’d review my 2008 goals & resolutions.

Affiliate Marketing

I’d like to win a contest… nope. The merchants that I work with don’t hold these types of contests. It seems contests are only held by CPA networks these days (you know, the guys with the exclusive offers and highest payouts) and I don’t do much work with them. I either need to drop this goal, or start working with those CPA networks.
Attend Affiliate Summit East in Boston – done!

Fitness

11% body fat, or lower – done! But I’m sure I’m over that now. Maintaining 11% isn’t easy.

Finance

Max out savings accounts – not yet. I still have time to fund mine, but I didn’t get anywhere on Laura’s or the kids’.

Other

Watch less TV. Nope – in fact, I probably watch more now. I lessened the impact of TV by putting one in my office, so I can have it on while I’m working. Some people listen to music, I watch (listen to) TV. One result of this has been that I stopped watching Heros – I couldn’t spend an hour reading all that Japanese translations. To make things worse, I installed FIOS recently and now have like 85 movie channels for the next couple of months.

In all, 2008 was a good year. I joined the Black Ink Project back in April, followed the directions line-by-line, and in August my website. Back then the Black Ink Project was free, but today they’re charging $97 to join. Believe me, it’s worth it. In fact, my first 3 days of having my site launched, I made exactly $97 ($32.34, $13.64, $51.02). Since then, it’s done much better, even giving me a day with $1,000 in revenue! I’ll be continuing what I learned from the Black Ink Project as I expand my affiliate marketing websites in 2009.

I’m currently working on my 2009 Goals & Resolutions and will hopefully post that from my new laptop on Jan-1.

Thanks for the Coffee!

Eric — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:40:00 +0000

I’ve had 2 coffee donations lately, and just wanted to say, “Thanks!”

A while ago my friend Jess from Affiliate Program Advice bought me a coffee. I met Jess at Affiliate Summit East last year in Miami – we went on a tour of the Everglades together (candid photo) – and have kept in touch ever since. Recently, I chimed in on a project she & her team have been working on. If I can help, I try to… if I have no idea what the project is about, however, I’m honest & don’t try to fake it. As an affiliate that has experience on both the UK & US sides of things, I was able to help “translate” a survey that originated in the UK, but is being moved to the US. We don’t have “Voucher Code” sites here, we have “Coupon” sites. I’m looking forward to meeting up with Jess again next month in Vegas.

And recently, I received a coffee from my friends over at the Kids Defense Team. They do a great job gathering donations for homeless children. If you’re looking to make a difference this Christmas season, I encourage you to check out their wishlist or donate to their organization today.

Why did these people buy me a coffee? It’s a simple “thank you”, and one that is greatly appreciated. I really do drive out to Tim Horton’s & buy my cup of coffee when I receive a donation. If I had that PayPal debit card, it would be with the same money… but I usually use what’s found in my pockets, or the kids lunch money.

Why should you buy me a coffee? Maybe you use my RSS -> Deeplink -> Twitter script, or my post on geo-targeting saved you hours of programming, or maybe you use this script that rotates offers based on EPC. Hey… I need my coffee to stay awake & provide such quality work

So how do you give me a coffee? Simple… click on that cup of coffee in the right sidebar of my blog. It’ll take you to Paypal and prompt you for a $2.01 donation. Why $2.01? Well, after PayPal fees, that leaves me with $1.65 – enough for a Tim Horton’s large double-double. If you think sending me money via PayPal is impersonal, you can always shop for Tim Horton’s online. Or, if you live in WNY or Southern Ontario, get in touch with me and I’ll be happy to meet you at a Tim Horton’s for a coffee in person. Just no Starbucks.

Dogsitting

Eric — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:45:28 +0000

Mom dropped off Echo last night, and I’m happy to say Scout & Echo are getting along great!

It took a while for both of them to take 3 seconds & sit down for a photo. Echo is the tiny one on the left; Scout is the big fat one on the right.

The morning workout. This went on for about 10 minutes.

Every morning I get a cup of coffee & shout, “Let’s go to work!” and Scout runs upstairs as fast as she can. Today I’ve got both of them up here with me. Lots of panting going on behind me. Hopefully they’ll calm down & take a nap soon.

iFrame a Link & Still Track Conversions

Eric — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:35:29 +0000

@IamJustinM asked the other day

Is it even possible to track visitors and conversions when you have the landing page in an iframe??? Can’t figure it out….

I gave a quick answer, “at top of iframe page, write tracking data to db, then get unique id and use that as your sid w/ the network” but wanted to show it a bit more in detail. So I took 5 minutes I whipped up this quick script:

// http://yourdomain.com/iframe.php?cSource=google&q=my+keyword


    mysql_connect('server', 'username', 'password');

    mysql_select_db('databasename');

    $cTable = 'iframetrack';

    /*

    CREATE TABLE `iframetrack` (

        `nID` INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY ,

        `cSource` VARCHAR( 20 ) NOT NULL ,

        `cKeyword` VARCHAR( 200 ) NOT NULL ,

        `cBrowser` VARCHAR( 200 ) NOT NULL ,

        `nIP` VARCHAR( 16 ) NOT NULL ,

        `tsDatetime` DATETIME NOT NULL

    ) ENGINE = MYISAM ;

    */

    if (empty($_GET['q'])) {

        list(, $cRefererQS) = explode('?', $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], 2);

        parse_str($cRefererQS, $_RefererGET);

        $_GET['q'] = $_RefererGET['q'];

    } // ends if (empty($_GET['q']))

    $cQuery = "insert into $cTable (cSource, cKeyword, cBrowser, nIP, tsDatetime) values ('" . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_GET['cSource'])) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_GET['q'])) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])) . "', now())";

    mysql_query($cQuery);

    $nID = mysql_insert_id();

    $cAffLink = 'http://www.cpaclicks.com/redirect.asp?a=2429&b=27673&d=0&l=0&o=' . $nID . '&p=0';

?>





Title








    " width="100%" height="100%" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0">

          
">Click to continue.

Now it’s probably not perfect, but it gives you a way to track this info. When you link to this iframe, set cSource to the source of the visitor (can be just the source, or source & ad number combined – whatever) and (optionally) set “q” to the keyword. If you omit this, it’ll look at “q” from the HTTP_REFERER, which is what most search engines use for the keyword field.

I’m not going to go into detail on how to change things – if you need help, just ask.

PS – Sorry about the funky quotes – WordPress is being “smart”. Find / replace to fix it.

WordPress Comment Blacklist

Eric — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:28:09 +0000

Even though I have Akismet‘s spam filter (Akismet has stopped 26,324 comments so far) and reCAPTCHA installed, I as still getting lots of comment spam on my blog. So I use the Comment Blacklist in WordPress (Settings > Discussion) and automatically block many comments from certain IPs or with certain keywords in them:

payday loan
casino
poker
ringtones
homeowners insurance
term insurance quote
life insurance
accident insurance
casualty insurance
phentermine
porn
cialis
p***y
c**k
car insurance
auto insurance
health insurance
Viagra
61.133.87.226
216.195.53.11
70.86.141.82
87.101.244.6
87.101.244.9
222.82.226.145
80.227.1.100
80.227.1.101
217.141.105.203
206.245.173.42
64.22.110.34
64.22.110.2
207.41.73.13
222.240.212.3
218.63.252.219
210.212.228.7
202.115.130.23
220.178.98.59
216.213.199.53
210.22.158.132
194.68.238.7
222.127.228.5
148.233.159.58
74.53.227.178
222.221.6.144
217.141.109.205
196.207.40.213
80.231.198.77
200.68.73.193
83.136.195.229
64.22.107.90
86.96.226.13
86.96.226.15
86.96.226.14
196.207.15.201
221.122.43.124
88.147.165.40
219.209.194.156
217.65.31.167
201.234.19.13
74.86.121.13
200.65.127.161
125.47.41.166
217.141.250.204
201.210.1.148
195.250.160.37
24.222.34.242
200.51.41.29
189.4.80.48
213.239.210.120
196.217.249.190
217.141.249.203
72.34.55.196
195.244.128.237
88.198.107.250
165.29.58.126
189.19.60.94
58.68.34.59
85.13.219.98
217.141.106.201

I cleaned up a couple of the words because my Mom reads this blog, but if you’re having trouble with comment spam, try using this list, and add your own as you see the spammers sneak in.

Panaro’s

Eric — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:52:51 +0000

Steve and I got together for lunch yesterday, after I ran a bunch of errands and before I sat around in a county building for 3+ hours just to be rescheduled for next month. Well played. I hope you enjoy the guests coming your way.

Anyway, Steve and I ate at Panaro’s, a restaurant on Delaware that Steve’s good friend Mike owns. Steve’s always bugging me to come his way for lunch, so since I was heading down there, we decided to meet up.

We must have looked a little odd ordering the exact same thing; funny how that works out. At least I ordered first Of course, we started with a cup of Pasta Fagioli. Then we each got their Mandarin Walnut Salad:

Mesculin Greens tossed with mandarin orange wedges, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, red onion, and topped with orange raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Yum!

So besides the great food and helping a friend, why am I telling you about Panaro’s? Because they use Twitter to send out daily updates about their specials. Follow them at http://twitter.com/Panaros. After seeing those daily specials come across each morning, eventually you’ll cave in (like I did) and visit Panaro’s.

Endorsements Add Snow to a Snowball

Eric — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:03:45 +0000

Funny thing about politics lately are the endorsements coming in. The Kennedy’s are endorsing Obama, Guliani is endorsing McCain. I’m sure there are others, and more to come.

Endorsements are like the nail in the coffin for the other candidates. Why? Because nobody wants to support a loser, so they wait until their adviser tells them who will win, then they endorse that person (whether they believe in him/her or not).

That endorsement swings voters, making the candidate even stronger. Then other politicians, unions, etc. endorse the candidate, bringing in more voters to his/her side. The snowball continues to grow. And when those candidates win, the endorsers look enlightened to the general public and are sure to receive perks from the winners.

I thought Levitt & Dubner wrote about this in Freakonomics, but can’t find a reference now.

Looks like McCain & Obama will be going head to head in November. The question is, who’s going to be their running-mates?