Welcome to the Twilight Zone… where you pay for the advertising you view.

I found out something new when I phoned my ISP to complain about an $11 charge added to my bill for broadband use. I don’t download music. I avoid huge video files like YouTube. I do upload photos to Flickr and my blogs. I do window shop for open source and freeware programs. Until the last three months I was not paying extra for the broadband I used. That changed.

I am not uploading more photos than before. I’m not downloading more programs. What has changed are the flood of videos in blogs and most of all, the flood of ads using heavier files which take a long time to load even with my new PC and DSL connection. I am paying to see these files. I don’t want to see them and I very much don’t want to pay for them.

Why is it that each time we make the Internet faster we also make it slower? I wouldn’t say my connection running on DSL is really a lot faster than my old dial up connection ten years ago. In theory it should be much faster, light speed in comparison. It doesn’t seem to be that way. First, it was those HTML emails that slowed it down. Then the pop up ads which had to stop everything while they forced a new window open. Flash ads which often opened a new window and crashed your PC cause they couldn’t suck up bandwidth fast enough. Now, sites are running video ads which make you wait for them to load whether you like it or not. They slow your computer right down so you can’t even get it to move to another site or another page until the video has loaded.

Next month my broadband overflow is higher than $11, I asked when I changed my account. If I pay an extra $5 a month I have more broadband for the ads that want to suck it up. I’m still being screwed over. But, maybe it will cost me just a bit less each month. Thanks, yeah… thanks a lot!

Windows Vista is making things very difficult but I’m not giving up yet. I have CDs for an old version but the latest, 7.04 seems to do a better job of working alongside Windows. Not that I really am fond of Windows, especially Vista, but some things will not run on a Linux (Ubuntu) operating system. Some day they will all get it right, all work together so that your computer doesn’t seem to be at war with itself. At least it would be nice. I’m not holding my breath. Though, from a money making view, who wouldn’t be interested and likely buy into an OS that could work with everything.

I am thinking of tossing Windows Vista for my old Windows ME. For one thing it did not nag at me constantly. Vista is like having a dog humping your leg, no matter how many times you swat at it the damned thing just keeps coming back. I don’t know why they did this. How does this seem useful to the PC user? It’s just hugely annoying. Took me years to stop getting annoyed each time old Windows asked me if I really wanted to delete that file. Now the new one is paranoid and asks me if I even want to open that file. Too much!

Question of the week… Why is Windows Vista a LOT slower than Windows ME was when ME was running on a much older PC and Vista is on a brand new PC just out of the store one week? It’s a mystery. It’s the main reason I am thinking ME could be making a comeback for me.

A blog should be published at least once a week, if not daily, with fresh, original content. If you can’t do that you are using the wrong media and selling yourself short. Ezines need to make a comeback in a big way. Although an ezine can use content management systems (blog software) it is the format and style which make them different. An ezine is an online magazine. They don’t need to be published daily, they don’t need to be the work of just one person and they can have various sections geared to offering information, services and promotion of the business. If you can’t write your own blog post each day, consider an ezine. Hire or find people to create the graphics, articles and power up your ezine. It is a great alternative in the SEO sense too as blogs are clogging up their categories in web directories while ezines have dwindled. If you want to stand out try the ezine format, be different from the flock.

A blog should not expect reader feedback or rely on it. People read, lurk and leave. That’s how it goes. If you want interaction with your readers/ sales prospects look at message boards. You only need to make a short post, maybe just a quick question, then let the readers post their opinions, ideas and questions. It is interactive and relies less on your own input than on the people you want to inform about your skills, services and/ or products. It is a good idea to make sure you have recent posts so be prepared to make at least one each week, more when your message board is just starting up. Have family and friends help out until your readership has grown enough to support the board with real traffic. Always go in to moderate your boards for spam, discussions that get out of hand or someone who has asked a question about your business. Message boards are a great way to inform the public. Instead of a blog which cycles posts a board has all it’s content sorted and displayed on the front page. Readers hit the section they want and follow the thread, like a train of thought. It is a great format for site owners who don’t really want to spend time learning how to write and publish.

Another option is the email list. A blog is static, it does not move from where you put it on the web. An email list goes right to the people who subscribe. They will see it in their inbox and read it at their convenience. You don’t rely on bringing them to your site. Though, have a site with more information for them to come to once the email has drawn them in. Post a list monthly, weekly or some other time period that suits you. It does not have to be stuffed with articles. There is a lot you can do, depending on what you are selling. Use it just to notify them about a contest you are running, a sale, something new that has just come in. Or give them tips and advice and keep all them all in an archive on your site which they can refer to. Add a link to your site and the archive at the end of each email. It is important to have unsubscribe instructions too, make them clear and visible.

I think someone is going to come up with a scheme to bring blogs to email inboxes soon. It seems to be the next evolution in spamming to me. The content management side can’t be beat. But, it is still static. People have to come to you in order to be spammed. How disappointing. Of course they have come up with all sorts of sneaky ways to mislead people into coming for a look. But, once readers realize they’re being splogged they leave and don’t come back. So, emailing it to them is the next step. After all, how many times a day do most people check their email? More than a few for most.

You will get a bloated email full of spammy goodness but that won’t be a problem since mostly everyone has gone out for HTML email. Only a few have kept it to text only. (Mainly because I am still opposed to bloated HTML emails that make me sit and wait for them to spam me). I think some of the blogs coming to your email will have scripts to make them scroll once they are opened. That way they have more chance of snagging your attention before you delete them. Surely they can sell you on something before you hit delete.

I’m writing this cause I would love to see the spammers find some other tool and leave blogs alone. Email spam used to be the biggest problem (and maybe still is for some people) I find splogs to be the worst thing online. They steal content, pollute the blogosphere and they are leaking into what would otherwise be personal blogs worth reading. Get paid to post sites are popping up all over and they are getting clever about their scams too. One offers to pay $20 and up for you to review a commercial website in your blog. Very clever that one. But, do you see that money? Does it just roll right in? I doubt it. All it really does is lose your reader’s attention and bring your blog down to their level of splogginess. Think before you pollute.

PS- I think of any blog with more focus and space given to selling something than original written, drawn or otherwise creative content as spamming. If I didn’t come to your blog to be sold condoms, pills, software, etc then I don’t want to have them stuck in front of my face. If I want ads I can turn on the TV or pick up a magazine. Blogs need a shot of zine spirit when they really were free press and indie publishing. I resent a commercially focused blogger who tries to sneak and trick their way into the free spirited writing atmosphere which blogs used to be.

I’m going to buy a new computer. Ding dang the bells are going to shine…! Consider that musically inclined and it will make more (some) sense.

I just received part of my income tax return and I am going to spend it on a new PC. My current PC is an IBM NetVista, about fix (five or six, at this point it doesn’t matter it’s just OLD) years old. I have my beady little eye on the HP Pavilion I’ve been drooling over at a few computer shops. But, I am limited to spending about $700 including taxes and that’s Canadian bucks. I actually think I can do it. I’ve been looking at the flyers and there is hope.

But, it has been awhile since I’ve been computer shopping. I used to think the most essential thing was to get double whatever they offered in RAM. Now I think I also want to get the dual core processor puppy. It sounds good. Does anyone have advice?

I know I want to go with a PC, Macs are more expensive (must be that ad campaign costing them a bundle and I’m not helping them pay for their PC bashing). I would like to partition the hard drive and add Ubuntu as my main OS and yet keep Windows for other programs I have gotten used to having around. So whatever PC I buy will have to be adaptable to my mad science experiments. Also, a yearly reformatting of the hard drive, much like the geese flying south, it’s just something I have to do.