Mobile traffic is huge these days and usage is surging. If you want to ensure that your visitors don’t get left out in the cold, here is a simple hack that makes the audio player plugin HTML5 friendly and therefore rendering the player usable on all non-flash compatible mobile devices.

Many reviewers suggested that the headset was cheaply made and prone to breaking. Specifically, they cited audio dropout problems in either ear piece and microphone breakage.

Undeterred by the negative reviews (and the fact that I wanted to pick up a headset immediately rather than order it online), I checked the price online at Best Buy and discovered it was on sale. Cool. I headed out of the house with my wife and youngest daughter to pick up the headset.

Although I initially had a tough time locating any of the USB headsets at Best Buy, I found the Logitech headset a few minutes later and was ready to checkout. By this time, my 2 year old was already anxious to leave and fussing.

This is when I encountered Mr. Checkout guy on aisle #5. Here is how the conversation went down:

Checkout Guy (CG): Did you find everything okay?
Me: Yes, thanks.
CG: Oh, Logitech huh?
Me: Yeah, I figured I would give it a shot.
CG: Did you know it’s on sale?
Me: Cool.
CG: The sale ends tomorrow and it goes back to it’s regular price.
Me: Uh huh…
CG: I suggest you get our replacement guarantee, good for 2 years, full replacement, blah blah blah…
Me: How much is it?
CG: Only $9.99, and it covers full replacement in case anything breaks such as the ear piece or microphone. Just bring it back in and we’ll replace it at no cost.
Me: Alright. Sounds good.

Now mind you, I rarely ever go for the extended warranties on any of my electronics. However, having read all of the negative reviews online prior to stepping into the store, I still had the same concerns while checking out.

Checkout Guy simply understood the benefits of the replacement warranty as it directly related to my immediate concerns regarding the durability and quality of the product. It was as simple as that.

Sold!

UPDATE: Two days after purchasing the Logitech headset, it broke. Go figure.

I setup an alert in my phone a few minutes later to remind me to check up on the status of the expiring domain name on a daily basis. A few minutes after that I realized how bad I wanted this particular domain and decided this “hunt and peck” strategy just wasn’t going to cut it.

A quick Google search led me to this 4 year old post that discusses the journey of one man’s frugal attempt to secure a domain name using GoDaddy’s backordering service. Long story short and nearly $400 later, he got the domain name but not through GoDaddy. Although he later sold the site to Microsoft (cha-ching), the initial failed backorder wasn’t very encouraging.

Nevertheless, I perused the 700 or so comments from his original post and read several other reviews of the GoDaddy service elsewhere on the web. The consensus suggest that if the domain name you are trying to snag is currently registered through GoDaddy, using their own backordering service gives you a “one up” on all of the other drop catch services out there. Besides that, it’s also one of the cheapest.

Considering the official domain name drop is just around the corner, I decided to pony up the $19 and give the GoDaddy backordering service a shot. I’ll soon find out whether or not that was a Derek Fisher game 4 shot or rather no shot in hell .

Stay tuned… I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE #1: I received an email yesterday (7/24) from GoDaddy indicating the status of the domain I’m chasing changed from redemption period to pending delete. According to most sources on the web, the 5 day countdown to the domain drop is on! Fingers crossed.

UPDATE #2: Today (7/30) was the drop. GoDaddy failed. Lesson learned. Backorder domain names using multiple services instead. SnapNames, NameJet, and Pool.com just to name a few.

The “post by email” WordPress option does not support email attachments. I somehow missed this disclaimer after having already configured my own “super secret” POP3 email address and wondering why the attachments were not showing up. Secondly, the iPhone voice memos are only available in .m4a format on not the more common and user-friendly MP3 format.

After all was said and done, I ended up with the following “dirty” solution because although the process is still straightforward (record memo, email, and post on the fly), the presentation and execution leaves something to be desired.

Step 1: Head on over to Posterous.com and create a new account if you don’t already have one. Posterous allows us to get around the whole WordPress “post by email” attachment problem. Please note that you will need to cough up your WordPress credentials in order to configure Posterous to work with WordPress.

Step 2: Download and activate the Anarchy Media Player plugin. This media player “automagically” replaces inline .m4a links with a playable widget.

Step 3: Record a voice memo on your iPhone and share it by sending an email to post@posterous.com. Be sure to send it from the same email account you used when you signed up for Posterous.

Step 4: That’s it. The voice memo should now show up on your blog with an inline audio player for instant playback.

Although this isn’t the most elegant solution, it works. I would have preferred more control over the post formatting and I still haven’t figured out how to make the .m4a files podcast friendly even after adding the requested directives to my .htaccess file. However, what you get in return is up to 1GB free hosting from Posterous and ease of use.

If you’re interested in checking out the end result, click here.

Memo.m4a (106 KB)

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from seldomstatic’s posterous

Selling ads doesn’t generate only profits; it also generates torrents of data about users’ tastes and habits, data that Google then sifts and processes in order to predict future consumer behavior, find ways to improve its products, and sell more ads. This is the heart and soul of Googlenomics. It’s a system of constant self-analysis: a data-fueled feedback loop that defines not only Google’s future but the future of anyone who does business online.

SOURCE: Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability

With all of the hype surrounding the .me registrations, I couldn’t help but wonder what good domains, if any, were still available for registering. I started plugging away at the Go Daddy bulk registration tool and realized within the span of a couple minutes that my searching for single word .me domains was futile. Moving on, I brainstormed two-word .me domains using Google and stumbled across a gem (at least that’s what I thought having recently read about the need for an iphone social network on TC).

I immediately registered the two-word domain with Go Daddy half-thinking it was going to get rejected anyways. However, the “Congratulations! Your registration request for the domain name(s) below was successful” email and $40 debit proved otherwise. Looks like I’m the proud new owner of the following domain:

www.peoplenear.me

Soooooo… Anybody interested in starting up an iphone social network?

Looks
Although you shouldn’t base your entire decision on looks alone, I still don’t recommend running a butt ugly theme. Give your visitors something pretty to look and they’re more likely to stick around. Your bounce rate will thank you later.

Layout & Usability
How many columns is too many columns? Can visitors easily navigate your site and access your content? Is it easy for them to subscribe or contact you? Before you can choose the right WordPress theme, it is important to understand your own goals and those of your readers. A good theme will accommodate both.

Easily Customizable
It should be easy to customize your free WordPress theme. However, if you have to dig through unorganized stylesheets or non-commented PHP code, the theme may be more trouble than it’s worth especially considering most default themes will need to be tweaked in one way or another.

Custom Functions & Features
Free themes typically include only the bare bones essentials and do not offer more advanced features such as custom 404 pages or stylized comments. Other goodies might include dashboard management tools for custom theme functions, built-in advertising options, and social media sharing solutions.

Theme Author & Support
Just because it’s free, doesn’t mean it’s any good. Would you rather download a free theme from an experienced publisher or a one-off designer’s coding nightmare? Additionally, does the author/publisher provide any support or regular updates for the theme?

All things considering, I opted to run a slightly modified free UBD Moneymaker Theme courtesy of Unique Blog Designs. It looks pretty, is usable, easily customizable, equipped with premium features, supported, and provided by a company known for their unique blog designs.

After running the full scan, as with most spyware/adware solutions, I was presented with a list of items which could potentially be hindering/affecting the performance of my computer. Without doing much more research, I decided to let Spybot fix and/or remove all of the potential problems it found. Besides, I don’t really have time to query all of the various cookies and verify on my own whether or not they are evil doers.

Great, the scan is done and problem solved. Or at least that’s what the hope is. Sure enough, I go to login to my affiliate network and can’t because Spybot is blocking cookies. After customizing the browser internet options and making various site exceptions, I’m back in business. However, since the process was such a pain in the ass, I went ahead and uninstalled Spybot altogether. Truthfully, the only reason I installed it was to find the problems and delete them. Problem solved, software gone.

Fast forward a month or so to present day. I’m working on a new commission junction campaign and setting up the landing page links. Weird. The commission junction links don’t work. Contacted the advertiser and they can’t seem to replicate the problem. Contacted my friend and asked him to verify whether the links are working. Well what do you know, they work fine he says. Hmmm…

Oh, that’s right (slips and falls hitting my head on the toilet), didn’t CPA Affiliates mention something about Spybot killing your affiliate sales? Problem is, when I originally read the post, I didn’t really know wtf they were talking about. Oh, I think I have a much better understanding now.

Which leads me to part II of the Spybot search and destroy saga. How exactly do you fix the problem now that Spybot has already been uninstalled? After some Google poking, I came across the following fix:

Locate your “hosts” file in one of the following directories:

Windows 95/98/Me c:windowshosts
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:winntsystem32driversetchosts
Windows XP Home c:windowssystem32driversetchosts
Linux /etc/hosts

Once you locate the hosts file, open it up with your favorite text editor such as notepad and remove any lines with the following:

bfast.com
linksynergy.com
qksrv.net
cc-dt.com
commission-junction.com

After that, save and close your browsers. The links should work now. If the links still don’t work, make sure you are editing the hosts file located in the specific directory mentioned above.

And on a final note, Yodama, a member of Team Spybot, indicates that they have since removed apmebf.com, emjcd.com and kqzyfj.com from the hosts and Internet Explorer immunization. So there you go, short story long.

1. Identify your advertising goals.
Your optimization strategy depends on the objectives that you define for your campaigns.

2. Organize your account for maximum effectiveness.
A well-structured account is easy to manage and allows you to effectively target your audience.

3. Choose relevant keywords and sites.
The more relevant your keywords and sites to your goals, the more easily you can reach your potential customers.

4. Create straightforward, targeted ads.
The content of your ads should capture users’ attention and set your business apart.

5. Optimize your website for conversions.
Ultimately, your website determines how well your ads convert, so be sure it’s designed to let users complete the action you want them to take.

6. Track your account performance.
Monitoring your results allows you to ensure you’re getting a good return on your investment.

7. Test and modify your campaigns to get the results you want.
Optimizing your campaigns regularly will help you keep up with users and market trends and ultimately reach your advertising goals.