Technorati is broken or just useless?

Well, technorati seems to not like my blog, it claims I haven't published any new content in 176days! That's dispite me pinging them when I made new posts for the first few weeks of blogging. After that I gave up and moved on to other pinging services that seem to actually work! My favorites being Blog flux and ping-goat, I do alternate between each of these, but they ping all the major search engines and give a report over each ping and whether it was successful. Funny thing is, both respond saying that the ping to technorati was successful, yet they don't seem to update!

Play.com problem with sellers account

Gibraltar is within the UK according to Play.com. So sellers who are taking part in play.com's 3rd party seller program will only receive the standard price set for UK customers if orders are placed by Customers in Gibraltar, or any other UK dependency, such as the Falkland Islands for example. This even applies to playtraders who specify they will only dispatch to the UK.

The Playtrade system of inviting 3rd party sellers to market their goods and products on play.com is still pretty much in it's infancy. Play invited me to sell on their platform in March 2007, when they opened up the playtrader system to all. Previous to this they had only been allowing a very selected number of retailers to use their program, these sellers were the heavyweights of internet selling of media and dispatch thousands of items a month.

This problem reared it's ugly head after receiving an order from Play for dispatch to Gibraltar even though I had not offered international delivery as available for the item in question. The advice I at first received was very poor and indicated I would have to ship and bear the additional cost myself. After objecting to this and demanding to speak to a supervisor it was then looked into and admitted that this definitely needs the policy and technical team to look at, as a seller who had made available a heavier item for UK delivery had an order from a country which Play class as in the UK but Royal Mail class as international, the seller could make quite a loss by doing so, even if they had stated they were not dispatching items outside of the UK.

I will update this when I hear more back from Play.com in relation to this, meanwhile I am being left to discuss the matter with the customer and hope that they accept that play are to blame here and not myself. If the customer decides to leave me negative feedback as a result play have stated that they will not be able to intervene. As play customers are not used to leaving feedback in regard to transactions the level of feedback on play is very low, about 1 in 20 have left feedback so far, so negative feedback could have a very bad effect on my selling there.


I have had a limited success selling on Play up until now, and their system is fairly simple, though it is not easy to see who you are competing against from your listings page, only if there are sellers that have cheaper prices. To compare your listings you have to actually go to the play.com site and search for the item to find out who the other sellers are, their feedback and conditions/comments. Not ideal really, but it is hoped that they will develop this system to be more user friendly in time.

Selling Your Art Online using Amazon

Artists often have problems when it comes to marketing their work, but it appears that one artist has realised they could use Amazon as their shop window - gallery. It is a very cheap way of getting a massive amount of exposure, without the repeat fees of trying to do similar on ebay.

Have a look at this example of a sculptor, Julian P. Warren, selling their work on amazon with quite a sizeable, though realistic price tag! metalgnu
this peice has a nice price tag and would cost a few quid every 10day listing it was on sale on ebay. Yet this artist has several works for sale, priced upto £1500, and the only fee they would have paid is a one off monthly fee of £25 +VAT to be able to create as many listings as they can in that month, they then cancel the monthly subscription and await a sale. Ingenious or what?

My Amazon aStore earnings for June 07

July Earnings from my Amazon Associates account has been pretty consistent for most of the month and I'll share here some of the weird and wacky items order that allowed me to earn some commission.
Most of these have been through either product links I have left in various forums and from people directly accessing the aStore through my web page and also through a review of Glastonbury 2007 which is actually still being constructed and I'll hopefully have a chance to finish once I have finished cleaning mud off all that I took!

Books order -
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) [Children's Edition]
I've had a few people pre-order the childrens edition, though have not yet had any orders for the adult edition yet. In fact word has got out that all physical bookshops have already pre-sold all their first consignment so the only way to ensure getting a copy on the day of publication is through pre-ordering and paying a premium for delivery on publication date via amazon. Even with the delivery premium the book will be cheaper than store prices due to amazon offering it at 50% of the RRP

The Ultimate Psychometric Test Book
A best selling well reviewed book on getting the most from psychometric tests.

The Cambridge Diet
There's usually one diet book sold a month, showing that Dieting is a big seller.

Human Motivation: Metaphors, Theories and Research
Quite a high-brow study book, showing that all sorts are buying through my website and links

The Cleaning Bible: Kim and Aggie's Complete Guide to Modern Household Management
I was a bit disturbed to see someone had bought this and just hope that no one was thinking of giving me it as a gift!

The Cookery Year
New cook books also tend to sell well, even though I do not provide any links or reviews of them
so am assuming a customer just used my website to search amazon for this one.

Monstrous Regiment (Discworld)
Strangely enough I sold this the day after finishing reading it! A great book tackling equality and the madness of war from the very prolific Terry Pratchett

Night Watch (Discworld)
2 Discworld novels, both sold the same day so fair to assume it was the same customer. Night watch is arguably one of the best Discworld novels introducing the City Watch and the great Characters of Sam Vime, Captain Carrot and all!

The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures
A travel book or an analysis of american subculture?

Round Ireland with a Fridge
Definetly a travel book, and a very humorous one at that!

There was also quite a few other books sold for varying prices that I don't know enough about to comment on.

Games
Guilty Gear Isuka (PC)
Guilty Gear X2 Reload (PC)
Don't know much about the games field and have never reviewed any, so nice to get a bit of income from their sales! Same date of sale, so assuming they went to the same customer, especially as they seem to be related titles.

DVD's
Midsomer Murders - Vixen's Run
My Neighbour Totoro
A couple of DVD's that I don't know much about, different sale dates so assuming different customers.

Pre-orders that shipped this month
The Traveling Wilburys: Deluxe Collector's Edition/+DVD
Very hot selling CD, in the amazon top ten currently

Def Con 4 [2007]
4 of these were pre-ordered and shipped

Items that were viewed but had no orders made
Sharp LC42XD1E - 42" Widescreen Full HD 1080P LCD TV - With Freeview
Nice TV, lots of clicks but no orders

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Penguin Modern Classics)
A book II would highly recommend people to read, though doesn't look like my reccomendations have been taken up this month!

Bose Sounddock Black
Bose Sounddock White
Bose Sounddock black Digital Music System
Probably the best sounddock for your ipod! Though I imagine people must be saving up for it as it costs about as much as an Ipod, though the sound they give is absolutely unrivalled!

Luxury Ludo
Nice to see old fashioned board games are getting hits, if not actual purchases!

MiEssence Organics Sunflower Body Wash
This is a product I have actually got listed on amazon at the moment, it seems to be getting traffic but so far no sales!

This is not a complete list, but just to give an idea of what is popular and/or selling through my Amazon Associate account.

Anyway, I hope you find this list of items useful and it gives you an idea of the earning potential of being an Amazon Associate.

I must also add that I have been increasing my placement of adsense ads on a few of my webpages and the income from this is now starting to make me think about adding an adsense ad to each page I create!

Squidoo - Earn money online by writing reviews and content

Squidoo - Is a pretty unique community site allowing you to earn a share of the advertising revenue generated by people visiting the page you created. Whether it's a review of a book, restaraunt, night out or a rant, if it attracts visitors you'll get income! You can even use it to signpost your website and increase SEO (search engine optimisation).

For an example you can visit the page I made about Absinthe

If you sign up via my referral link you will also earn an extra $5 when you have earnt $15 revenue through visitors either just viewing your page and more if they click through from links on your lens (squidoo call each entry a lens)

There is no limit to the number or subjects you can create pages on and payouts are monthly via paypal. The minimum payout is actually a ridiculously low $1

I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know how I get on with it and what sort of earnings I have made. I don't expect to make bucket loads of cash, but I'll see if I can make some interesting content and what sort of things I have found worked!

Absinthe (Absinth) - The Green Fairy

Absinth(e) (in the UK is spelt with an e) has one of the most mythical histories of any alcoholic drink. It was actually banned on a number of occasions due to the results of peoples reactions to it. The hallucinogenic properties of it are fabled and well documented as well as it being used by many artists and writers for inspiration.

Here I intend to review a number of books available on it's history and usage.

Absinthe: History in a Bottle by Barnaby Conrad

Maybe not the most definitive book on the history of absinthe but accessible, enjoyable and plenty of graphic images to delight the reader. The images range from wild portraits by Van Gogh, to anti-Absinthe propaganda published by the French Government. This book is well researched and provides a good backdrop on the 'absinthe-culture'. The research is quite extensive and the images plentiful, there are also mini-biographies and literary quotes from and about Verlaine, Rimbaud, Wilde and Baudelaire showing how Absinthe was said to influence the creative and artistic. This book is very readable and insightful and probably the current most popular tome on absinthe.


Absinthe: Sip of Seduction - A Contemporary Guide by Betina Wittels & Robert Hermesch






Edited by T.A. Breaux with a foreword by Marie-Claude Delahaye. This comprehensive guide has been lovingly compiled by two avid collectors of all things Absinthe. Included is a cultural and scientific history, a gallery of famous drinkers both past and present and a detailed analysis of what Absinthe is and its effects. In addition, there are extensive guides to where to find Absinthe around the world - where it's legal and where it's not - as well as techniques for drinking it and making absinthe cocktails. Illustrated throughout.

Absinthe - The Cocaine of the Nineteenth Century: A History of the Hallucinogenic Drug and Its Effect on Artists and Writers in Europe and the United States - by Doris Lanier

This work provides a history of "the green fairy", a study of its use and abuse, an exploration of the tremendous social problems (not unlike the cocaine problems of this century) it caused, and an examination of the extent to which the lives of talented young writers and artists of the period became caught up in the absinthe craze.

Absinthe produced a sense of euphoria and a heightening of the senses, similar to the effect of cocaine and opium, but was addictive and caused a rapid loss of mental and physical faculties. Despite that, Picasso, Manet, Rimbaud, Van Gogh, Degas and Wilde were among those devoted to its consumption and produced writings and art influenced by the drink.

There are still many debates as to whether Absinthe was a Hallucinogen and this book does tend to take it as fact that the 19th century process of making it ensured that it actually was an hallucigen. This book is more aimed at the reader of social history than the more casual reader

The Dedalus Book of Absinthe by Phil Baker

This well-researched history of Absinthe is an absolute joy to read. It chronicles the devotion, effect, and, in some cases, destruction experienced through this drink by not only the masses but influential writers and artists such as Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, Baudelaire, Ernest Dowson, Verlaine & Rimbaud, Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh, et al. Also contains handy reviews of currently obtainable brands of the drink. Highly recommended!

Hideous Absinthe: A History of the "Devil in a Bottle" by Jad Adams

Hideous Absinthe boldly combines the art, literature, science, and social history of the nineteenth century to produce the story of a drink that came to symbolize both the high points of art and the depths of degeneration.
Jad Adams looks at the myths of absinthe and examines its influence on the artistic movements of the nineteenth century. He considers the work of Degas, Manet, and Picasso, who painted what are now considered masterpieces depicting absinthe drinkers. He examines the mystery of van Gogh’s absinthe addiction and asks whether absinthe truly did contribute to the poetic vision of Verlaine, Rimbaud, and other writers.
Adams looks back at absinthe’s contribution to the hedonistic culture of the French Second Empire and to Toulouse-Lautrec’s Paris of the 1890s and details the outraged English reaction to absinthe in the context of resistance to French art. Absinthe was seen as a foreign poison undermining the national resolve just as the decadence of Oscar Wilde and his circle was seen to undermine national culture.
The story continues through thrill-seeking American and English absinthe drinkers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Banksy Creates Crap Art At Glastonbury Festival

Our Banksy has done it again, the cheeky creative genius has created a henge at glastonbury from the famous portaloos!

I wonder how many festival punters are going to get so mashed up or desperate that they'll try and use them!

Original story appeared in the Guardian - 14-06-07

Thanks to towleroad for blogging about it first!