Many bloggers like to go down to the local WiFi equipped coffee shop when they want a change of scenery from blogging at home. While blogging from the Starbucks is nice, it comes with two very big drawbacks; you have to buy some damn expensive coffee and the WiFi speed isn’t very fast. In my quest to find a better alternative, I’ve came up with one of the best free places to blog outside the home.
The High-End Auto Dealership
Today, I was at the Mercedes-Benz dealership in Vancouver to check out the new SLS AMG and ended up blogging from their customer lounge. Not only does the Mercedes-Benz customer lounge have blazingly fast free WiFi, but they have free Café Moca (and every other coffee) and donuts as well. The setup would put any Starbucks to shame!
Now, I don’t recommend packing up your laptop and setting up camp at you local high-end car dealership. After all, their customer lounge is made for customers and not freeloaders. However, if you’re interested in checking out their cars, I don’t see anything wrong with using their lounge afterwards.
The is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. It cost over $200,000 with options. Think I should buy it?
Back in February, I did a podcast interview with Chris Ducker of Virtual Business Lifestyle. I’m happy to report that Chris has finally put the interview online and I’ve embedded it below.
Originally from the UK, Chris now lives in the Philippines, where he is the virtual CEO of the Live2Sell Group of Companies. Live2Sell helps entrepreneurs outsource all their work so they can live the Dot Com Pho lifestyle. In addition to running a company that is helping to destroy the American workforce, Chris runs the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog. One of the blog’s main feature is the VBL Podcast. Chris has interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry and I’m glad to say that my name is now among them. Enjoy the interview.
I first came across John when I fumbled over his ‘Dot Com Lifestyle‘ video on YouTube quite a while back and was then lucky enough to meet him personally last year. We kept in touch via Twitter and recently I was able to corner him for this freakin’ fantastic talk on the subject of internet marketing, getting started as an affiliate rockstar and basically everything and anything else ‘making money online’.
Free is a very popular word on the Internet. Pretty much every marketer uses it. However, most products that are free on the Net are usually not really free. Many sites will require you to give something – your email address or completing an offer – to get the freebie. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a site that really gave you everything for free without any catches? Well, that site is called FreeNapkin.
The FreeNapkin system is like a free eBay. Everything on the site is 100% free. All the products on the site are donated by members who no longer need or want them. If you see something you like, you just claim it and it’s yours. You have to become a member before you can claim an item. To become a member, you have to donate one item that you no longer need. There is no need to register for the site to become a member. Like many other membership sites, FreeNapkin use your Facebook or Twitter account as your registration. Once you become a member, you can claim as many items as you want. You can also donate as many items as you want. It’s a neat way to get rid of stuff you no longer have a use for. After all, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
After you claim an item, FreeNapkin will hook you up with the donor and you can arrange to pick it up or have it ship to you. You can search for items by state or city. Here’s the first item that showed up when I search for Seattle.
It’s actually quite fun to see the stuff members donated. I expected everything to be junk but came across some really cool stuff, like a perfectly working Compaq desktop computer. I also came across stuff that I thought was free, like dirt.
The FreeNapkin Toolbar
FreeNapkin developed a toolbar that enables members to stay connected to FreeNapkin at all times. However, the toolbar only works with Internet Explorer so all you Mac users are out of luck. You can check out the toolbar and see how FreeNapkin works by watching this video.
FreeNapkin Express Program
FreeNapkin makes it extremely easy to donate your stuff. All you need is a cellphone that can take pictures. It doesn’t have to be a smart phone. As long as the cell has a camera, you can use the FreeNapkin express program. No description is needed when you send the picture. The program will figure out where you are located based on your cellphone signal and then post the item into the correct state with the correct city. Here’s a video showing the FreeNapkin express program.
Help FreeNapkin Grow and You Can Get a Free Car
A site like FreeNapkin depends heavily on its membership. To grow the site, FreeNapkin is running a free car challenge. You can win the three-wheeled vehicle shown above if you refer 1,000 new members to FreeNapkin. The car is street legal and DOT certified as well as certified by the EPA. The top speed is 45 MPH and it gets 70 miles to the gallon.
If I refer enough people to win a car, I’ll give it away in a contest. You can help me win by joining FreeNapkin and cleaning out the junk in your closet.
It hasn’t come across the WordPress dashboard yet but WordPress version 3.1.2 is now available to download. This is a security release and all WordPress users are advised to upgrade to this newest version right away. From the WordPress blog:
WordPress 3.1.2 is now available and is a security release for all previous WordPress versions.
This release addresses a vulnerability that allowed Contributor-level users to improperly publish posts.
The issue was discovered by a member of our security team, WordPress developer Andrew Nacin, with Benjamin Balter.
We suggest you update to 3.1.2 promptly, especially if you allow users to register as contributors or if you have untrusted users. This release also fixes a few bugs that missed the boat for version 3.1.1.
Download 3.1.2 or update WordPress automatically from the Dashboard → Updates menu in your blog’s admin control panel.
One of the hardest problems new bloggers face is thinking up content to write about. I would say more time is wasted thinking about what to write than the actual writing. This is where a weekly event post can come in handy. Examples of this type of post include Shoemoney’s Free Shirt Friday, Michael Kwan’s What’s Up Wednesday and my Dot Com Pho. Having a post that recurs every week (or whatever set date) offers many advantages. In no particular order, here are some reasons why you should create a weekly event post. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
Fairly Easy To Produce Content
Creating a weekly event post doesn’t need a lot of work. Sure, the production time to produce an episode of Dot Com Pho is more involved than the average weekly event post. However, a free shirt Friday or what’s up Wednesday shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to write, especially when most of the contents (shirts and what’s up) are provided for you.
There’s no need to get fancy. Just decide on a recurring theme and post about it every week. If you can’t think up something as unique as a Dot Com Pho, then do what Jonathan Volk did and create a “Week In Review” post to list your best articles of the week. It’s easy to produce and adds more content to your blog.
It Gives Your Readers Something To Look Forward To Or Avoid
Having a weekly event post is like having a TV show. Your readers know when it’s going to happen and will either look forward to it or avoid it like the plague. Either way is good because it puts your blog in your reader’s mind and associates it with a particular event.
You should pick a day of the week for your event post and stick to it. Moving it around will create reader confusion. I know Shoe will show off a new T-shirt every Friday and I always look forward to seeing it. Because weekly event posts are easy to produce and mostly light reading, they’re generally posted on the weekends or start of the weekend. You want your best content on the heavy traffic days (during the week) and the recurring stuff during the week when traffic is low (weekend).
It Makes You a More Consistent Blogger
One of the biggest reasons for my blog’s success is my consistency. My blog has averaged two posts per day since it started and there has never been a single day in the blog’s life where there wasn’t at least one new post for readers to read. This level of consistency is very hard to keep up.
Having a weekly event post can help reduce the stress of producing a lot of content. It is hard to think up new things to blog about. However, I don’t have to worry about that on Saturday. I just need to bring my Panasonic GF2 digital camera and film what I’m having for lunch.
A weekly event post forces you to be a more consistent blogger. It’s very easy to delay that post “until tomorrow” and then delay it again. Pretty soon, you’ll go for weeks without a new post and then your blog will die. Even if you write no other articles, a weekly event posts will mean you will have at least one new piece of content every week, unless your Jonathan Volk. Then your week in review will be last week’s week in review post.
After our tulip adventure in the Skagit Valley, we drove over to the nearby town of Anacortes to try the best clam chowder in the Valley. Bob’s Chowder Bar & BBQ Salmon is a small roadside restaurant nestled at the end of the town’s main commercial avenue. The restaurant has a very interesting history.
It’s about the love. That’s the Bob philosophy. It’s about the love of food, the love of friends and the love of Babs and Bob.
Bob’s started because Babs used to sell jam at the farmer’s market. Bob was gone to sea for seven months of the year and Babs had to keep busy, so she jammed. Bob was lonely on Saturdays, so he grabbed a grill and a big soup pot and started making chowder and grilled salmon for visitors to eat while shopping at the farmers market. Soon enough, Bob was outselling Babs, so Babs quit jamming and joined Bob.
Bob decided to not go to sea anymore. He took all of his years as an Executive Chef and Chief Steward and put them to work. Now Babs and Bob have Bob’s.
Bob’s reminds me of Wally’s Burger. They both offer great food at great prices. Most of the seats (red picnic tables) are outside the restaurant. There’s really no tables inside. Just a few chairs, and a long red broad that run the length of the restaurant, to place your food. I would say no more than ten people can dine inside at any one time.
Bob’s New England style clam chowder cost only $3.95 a bowl and is the most popular item on the menu. One taste and you’ll understand why. The chowder was simply delicious, but I thought it could have been a bit hotter temperature wise. The other signature item is the grilled wild salmon. You think it would come in a plate but it a unique twist, it’s wrapped in a fresh tortilla. I also had a chance to sample the fish taco. It was good but not as good as the fish taco from the South Shore Grill in Waikiki.
Overall, I’m very happy I made the trip to Bob’s Chowder Bar & BBQ Salmon. They server some the best chowder in the west coast and offer great value for the money. I would definitely go there again if I’m in Anacortes. Bob’s Chowder Bar capped a great ending to an awesome tulip adventure.
Feather-light, smooth and made of 100% natural wood, WeWOOD is the eco-chic way to tell time. Born in Florence, the city of art, beauty and creativity, WeWOOD consolidates the Italian ability to architect unique items and the necessity to care for the environment.
Feel the difference nature can bring. Completely absent of artificial or toxic material, WeWood fashion watches are as natural and kind as the wrist that carries it. Your WeWood watch breathes the same air we breathe, respects our skin as we respect nature by supporting sophisticated sustainability. As alive as nature, your timepiece records your sensations and shares your experiences and may awaken memories from another time and place. The perfect natural mate, the eco cool watches of WeWood tell a story that becomes yours to wear, smell and feel.
The WeWOOD watch is available as the classic date watch (shown above) or the high tech crono. Four types of natural woods are available, and they can be mixed and matched to create a unique look. The watches cost at $119 for the date and $139 for the crono.
You Buy A Watch, WeWOOD Plants a Tree
WeWOOD’s tree-planting partner, American Forests, is the oldest nonprofit conservation organization, and is recognized as the world leader in environmental restoration because of its dedicated tree-planting efforts.
When you buy a WeWOOD watch, you’re also helping the planet by planting a tree.
WeWOOD Affiliate Program
If the idea of promoting an eco-friendly watch appeals to you, WeWOOD has an affiliate program that runs through Commission Junction. This is a very easy product to promote for the right blog.
How To Win Your Own WeWOOD Watch
To win your own WeWOOD time piece, simply reply to this post and explain why I should give you a wooden watch. Then send out the following tweet to your Twitter followers:
Hey! @Johnchow wants to give you wood! A watch made of wood. Get it here: http://www.johnchow.com/?p=17900
The reader with the best comment will win a watch. A watch will also go to a random Twitter user who sends out the above tweet. Winners will announce this Saturday at Dot Com Pho. You haven’t until then to submit your entries. Good luck and enter now!
One of the most common mistakes I see new bloggers make is not creating an email address with their blog domain name. They would have a nice dot com address for their blog but their email address would still be at Gmail, hotmail or yahoo.
There are many reasons why you should go through the extra time and effort to set up a domain email. The most important is branding – it’s far just better to have yourname@yourblog.com on your business card than yourname@gmail.com. Another reason for having a domain email is when you want to apply for an ad network.
The number one reason networks reject an application is not because the site is bad or has no traffic. It’s because they can’t confirm the ownership. You will not believe how many people apply to a network claiming to own sites that doesn’t belong to them. I’ve received applications from people claiming that their site is Google (and they applied with a Yahoo! email address)! If a network can’t confirm site ownership, they instantly reject the site. The easiest way to establish site ownership is with a domain email since only the domain name owner can use it.
How To Create A Domain Email Account
The following demo shows you how to create a domain email account using the HostGator (or cPanel) control panel. While my free WordPress installation service can set up your blog for you, setting up the email is something you’ll have to complete yourself. Fortunately, the procedure is not that hard.
Log into your HostGator control panel (you’ll find the login information in your HostGator welcome email) and follow the directions in this video.
After creating the domain email address, you can access it by using a variety of email clients. I prefer to check my domain email using Google Gmail. Your HostGator web hosting account includes three web based email clients. Here’s a video tutorial on how to use them.
You are now ready to send and receive email using your own yourname@yourblog.com email address.
It started off as Dot Com Pho for one but ended up with a dot com four. I thought nobody was going to show up after sitting down at Thanh Vi all by myself for 15 minutes. I was setting up the tripod to record an “I’m so lonely” message when Jay from Customer Experience Labs walked in. We were later joined by Brandon Ma and Sidra Ing to create one of the most touchy feely Dot Com Pho ever.
In addition to Brandon and Jay getting all touchy feely with each other, I break into the Thanh Vi wireless network and gave a public service announcement. Enjoy the photos and video! Anyone is welcome to join us for Dot Com Pho. Follow me on Twitter to find the time and location of the next one.
Dot Com Pho Vancouver – PlayBook Edition
Tablets are pretty popular these days, so this edition of Dot Com Pho has two tablets for the price of one. Unfortunately, one is far superior than the other.
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is one of the destination events for the Pacific Northwest, held each year from April 1-30. Every spring, hundreds of thousands of people come to enjoy the celebration of spring as millions of tulips burst into bloom. The tulips allow Skagit to share their corner of the world and helps to showcase the Skagit Valley agriculture.
We had several destinations to check out during our adventure to the valley, beginning with oyster tasting at the Blau Oyster Company. Normally, I love oysters. However, the Pacific Oyster at Blau must have been sitting in the sun for too long because it tasted terrible and had the strongest aftertaste ever. I had to split it out.
After the Oyster disaster, we drove over to Samish Bay Cheese to sample some fine organic cheeses. Samish Bay Cheese has been producing organic cheese in the Skagit Valley since 1999. They raise their cows on organic grass, grain, and clover grown on the farm and use their milk to produce several types of organic cheese. They also sell organic meats. I guess once the cows stop producing milk, they become organic steaks.
Our final stop, and main reason for going to Skagit Valley, was Tulip Town USA. This is one of the many tulip farms taking part in the tulip fest. It’s one of the most popular farms because there’s a more to do than just see tulips. There’s an indoor art display, face painting, kite flying, tractor trailer rides, garden shop and tulips for as far as the eye can see.
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival runs until the end of this month. It provides great fun for the whole family or for a couple looking for a romantic getaway. It also provides me with another event to test out my new Panasonic GF2. Enjoy the pics and video!
It Gives Your Readers Something To Look Forward To Or Avoid
