BlogMunch

Have I seen you somewhere, Mike Huang?

The reason I choose the above title is because I seem to “meet” him everywhere I go. I started to comment on others blog actively for the past 2 weeks and no matter where I am, I can always see his name. Hi Mike, are you stalking me? Hee hee

Mike has just start a new blog, Bloggin-Ads.com, that plans to review the whole blogosphere. No matter how big or how small you are , your blog will be considered. A proof of this will be his review of BlogMunch. I took the plunge and send him a email for him to review my blog and he answered almost immediately that he will do it. He did a structured and honest review of BlogMunch that highlight what my blog is about and also how I can improve it. What a great guy! Hurry if you want to be reviewed by him, I think his reviews are piling up.

Another thing he wish to do with his blog is to setup a blog directory where bloggers can find a detailed review of any blog found within the directory. That’s an ambitious project but you have to think big to succeed, right? You can help by writing a review of your blog or other blogs you like and submitting it to Mike. One thing I am curious about is his choice of name. Bloggin-Ads.com doesn’t sound like a name for a directory. But, well, he might have his reasons.

Although he officially goes live on the 9th Nov, he has already gotten a plug from the Cow and even an exclusive interview with the creator of MillionDollarWiki, Graham Langdon. I think his blog is going places very soon. Subscribe to his feed to keep up to date with his progress.

(Note: I would have tell you about his contest and his ad-spaces giveaway, but both are over at the time of post.)

See you again soon on the comments stream.

Get paid to blog with Smorty

Amid all this hoopla about Google going after paid posting, I going to do a “eff-you” review about another paid posting site. It’s good to have alternate options to everything, so that you won’t have the rug swept up from under you.

Smorty works like any other paid review site. You sign up for free, submit your blog for approval and look out for opportunities to give your opinions. It seems that every opinion article on my list is worth $6.00. So if you are an advertiser, Smorty provides an inexpensive blog advertising. Form a blogger point of view, $6.00 seems little, especially if you are a high ranking blog. But for smaller blogs, $6.00 per article is reasonable since the average at Payperpost (PPP) is about $5.00. According to the FAQ, you will be given higher value opportunities if you have a higher PageRank. But now that Google is going after paid posting, I hope Smorty will use their own smart score system more to determine a blogs ranking.

What I like best about Smorty is its weekly payment system. After you have your articles approved, the next weekly payment will be your payment date. There are no minimum payment and it will be pay via Paypal.

The interface is very simple with you stats table on the left and the opportunities on the right sidebar. When you accept an opportunity, you will find it on your pending task with details of your task and the time left for you to finish this article. You will be given 3 days to finish, as opposed to 6 hours for PPP. One thing I am worried about may be the lack of opportunities. At the moment I have 4. Will I get more when I finished them. We’ll see.

One thing that irritates me is the long review time for PPP. For Smorty, according to the FAQ, it will take 5 days to approve. I hope Smorty will shorten the process and it will not take the full 5 days for every post that I submit.

I am curious about the separation of the affiliated program and the referral program. The referral program earns you 5% commission for every post approved from your referred blogger. But I am not sure what the affiliated program does as I need to join clixgalore to know about it.

Start to get paid for blogging with Smorty now. It is a simple and easy system with a weekly payout, so you will have to worry about meeting the minimum payout. If you want to advertise on blogs, this will be a inexpensive solution. I like it.

Sharing is good, not sharing is BAD - Skype

I am sure everyone knows what is Skype . They totally revolutionize the telecommunications by providing a software that people can download to call other people over the internet for free and make cheap calls to phones and mobiles worldwide. It being so fun and easy, I can now say hello to my friends in US and China without incurring exorbitant phone charges.

And you know why I am sharing this with you? Because sharing is good, not sharing is BAD. Watch these videos.

Don’t mess around with your girlfriend’s “Balloons”.

Whoever said Frisbee is a non-contact sport, go ask the squirrel. Oh, I forgot. He got killed by a Frisbee just now.

Obviously this kid did not watch the Hitchcock film “Birds”.

Looking at this video, I just can’t seem to shake off the image of a certain sextoy out of my head. (Go guess yourself)

All these videos have a Happy Tree Friends quality to it, though not as violent and bloody.

Two more news about Skype.

1. The new Skype beta (ver. 3.6) allows for High Quality Videos. That means you will be able to see your cousin Mary’s newly form pimple clearer and sharper.
2. Amid all the hype for the iPhone, Skype has just launched a new mobile phone called 3 Skypephone. One that lets you make free Skype-to-Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages from anywhere. Each will cost about £49.99.

How are your experience with Skype? Tell me in the comments below.

Want to know when I will be on Skype? Subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed now.

BlogMunch roundup

This is my first blog round up in the three months since I start blogging. I would like to highlight some of my better posts.

Blogging Tips

Do you hide your affiliated links?

3 mistakes I WANT to make as a beginner blogger

8 sure ways to get a blogger’s block

Good Ideas

52 ideas that put you in the mood for Halloween!!!

My review of Online Image Editors

The benefits of keeping a “how to” folder

How to do an effective presentation

Blog Migration Series

Blog migration series - cpanel orientation

Blog migration series - Choosing Wordpress plugins

Blog migration series - Choosing a webhost

Of course there are also my WordPress Theme highlights and Flash game recommendations each week (almost).

I hope I have covered my better posts. I will write more quality posts in the future so that every month I can do a roundup.

Be the first to read my next roundup by subscribing to the BlogMunch Feed.

Do you want to know the secret about Jay Chou?

Actually, I can’t tell you the secret about The Secret (??????), a movie written, directed and acted by Jay Chou. This whole movie revolve around the twist, so if I told you, you would have hate me when you see the movie. Damn, Jay really is a talented guy. Honestly, I don’t expect much while buying this DVD, as his last movie, The Curse of the Golden Flower, was crappy. Well, all I can say is this is one of the better shows this year and could be in my top ten movie in 2007.

It is difficult to review this movie without touching the twist, but I will try. This is a simple love story that revolve around Hsiang Lun (Jay Chou) and Xiao Yu (Kwai Lun-Mei). They first met when Lun was attracted to a tune played at a conservatory. Thereafter, they start to have feelings for each other, do the romantic things that couples do, had a misunderstanding, turns into tragedy and finally boy gets girl. That’s it in a nutshell. Except for the mystical twist in the middle of the movie that turns your perspective  around the whole story.

Jay is still a stiffy actor like a poor man’s Keanu Reeves. But give him a piano, he becomes a entertaining performer. The music is integral to the story and Jay takes every chance to show off his piano skills.

I think Kwai Lun-Mei acted very well and the movie was better because of her. She is not as pretty as the other female actress but all the sappy moments with Jay and the distraught she feels when she need to leave him really tug at your heartstrings.

Anthony Wong is always a scene stealer and provides plenty of comedic relief. I especially like the scene when he danced with Jay and also the scene where he say “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, when Jay ask him how to cure asthma.

I will end by saying the soundtrack is very nice and if you are even remotely a Jay fan, you will buy it.

Ok, I would say go watch it. It will exceed your expectations of Jay as a movie maker. On a score of 5, I would give it a 3 and a half. I will end with a poem from the movie.

Follow The Notes Upon A Journey
At First Sight Marks One’s Destiny
Once The Voyage Comes To An End
Return Lies Within Hasty Keys

Subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed if you would like to read more movie review from me.