BGMacaw’s Squawk Box

April 30, 2008

BANS Tutorial

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 4:30 pm
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My ‘Dad’ has gotten this crazy idea that he can make a lot of bananas by using this program called BANS or “Build A Niche Store”. It’s a script that builds an ugly website around eBay auctions. While me and Mom both told him he was nuts and why wouldn’t someone just go to eBay directly to buy something, he pointed out a post by that Vic guy. Vic, who makes a lot of bananas online, said that people would find a site and my Dad believes him! I like Vic. His videos and live broadcasts teach me some new and interesting phrases I can use when Dad is slow with the food.

Anywho, Vic put together this video post explaining to folks how to use that program called BANS Step By Step Video Tutorial. Well, I hope my Dad learns something from it so that he can bring home more bananas and Vanilla Wafers for me. I’m tired of being stuck with orange pellets. Listen to Vic if you want to bring home the BANSnanas for your family.

April 29, 2008

Jonathan Coulton - Internet Rock Star

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 9:53 am
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I ran across this interview of one of my favorite Internet Personalities today: How to Become a Rock Star. Jonathan Coulton is a great example of someone how went out an pursued his dream, even with the odds against him. Most people end up in a cage all day like me, squawking a lot but not accomplishing much beyond annoying their neighbor.

We know that code monkeys like Fritos and Mountain Dew. Do they also like bananas like us blue and gold macaws?

April 6, 2008

Blogging Zombie

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 10:47 am
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Here’s a new site someone suggested to me, Blogging Zombie. Like many other sites today, it promises to help you make money blogging. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that one before haven’t we. How many of the million or so blogs out there rehash this point over and over again. However, Justin does know his stuff and is bringing home the bananas himself so he seems to know what he’s talking about.

He is mainly posting in a video format and is concentrating on how to set up a BANS site. BANS, Build A Niche Store, is the way to leverage niche search marketing with eBay affiliate sales, a good way to bring home the pellets and bananas in case you didn’t know. The production quality of the videos is low but the content is great. I’d recommend listening to what he has to say if you want a way to bring home a nice bunch of delicious bananas for your family.

April 4, 2008

Lost Ball in High Weeds

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 11:11 am
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Lost Ball in High Weeds is a good “make money online” kind of site. Yeah, I know, you’re thinking of those sites that promise the world if you blog and buy their $199 ebook, get on their mailing list and sign up for their $99 s month training session. Well, Splork, the author of the blog, doesn’t play that game.

His site goes over things he’s tried and he is quite willing to call BS on products that don’t work for him. For example, take a look at this one on Squidoo Queen: I Can’t Recommend This Squidoo Ebook. He’s looked at other products too so check out all of the posts.

Also handy are his descriptions of things he’s tried to make money online. If you’re looking into doing this yourself you should take the time to learn from someone else’s actual experiences.

If you want to bring home the bananas, give Lost Ball in High Weeds a read.

April 2, 2008

Caroline Middlebrook Conflaguration

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 3:32 pm
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It looks like there is quite a tempest brewing over at Blogger Unleashed where Vic Franqui did a video blog post lambasting Caroline Middlebrook and her “make  money online” methods. Vic doesn’t hold anything back. He’s been compared to the Gordon Ramsey of the blogosphere because in spite of his foul language and aggressive behavior he does really care about people being successful. The post already has nearly 100 comments as the controversy swirls.

Check it out and see what the fuss is all about and see who you think has the best method for bringing home the bananas!

March 24, 2008

Asia’h Epperson Contest

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 8:47 am
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As a demo of SEO skills, my pal Grizzly started a SEO contest on his blog that offers $500 to anyone who can beat his American Idol blog about Asia’h Epperson that is currently ranked at #3. Asia’h got kicked off American Idol without reaching the top 12 but she might be surprised to learn that she’s getting a second life on the Internet in the form of this contest. People anxious to win the $500 are creating blogs and other sites talking about her. Hopefully she can take advantage of this free publicity on the Internet to take her singing career to a new level in spite of getting kicked off American Idol way too early in my opinion and the opinion of many others.

I had helped Griz out with his site with a post of my own here: American Idol Top 24 contestant Asia’h Epperson. Grizzly has some great lesssons about how to apply search engine optimization and marketing techniques. Applying such techniques is not only important to search marketers but to wannabe celebs like Asia’h Epperson. It is important for anyone who gets a ‘golden ticket’ to Hollywood, or to be on the cast of any reality show, to go ahead and get WordPress.com, Blogger.com, MySpace, Facebook and other social media accounts setup ahead of time. Otherwise your name, once you gain fame, might be the subject of a SEO contest as what has happened with Asia’h Epperson.

Check out the contest results by doing a Google search for Asia’h Epperson. If you’re participating in the contest, leave me a comment with your site. If it is particularly good or particularly ugly, I may just link to it. The guy who feeds me was slow with the pellets this weekend and didn’t give me a banana so I don’t want him to win.

UPDATE

This contest is getting bananas. Here are some of the contest entries that I’m monitoring:

Terry Didcott: Asia’h Epperson
EJ Cross: Asia’h Epperson

March 12, 2008

Betta Fish Care

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 12:35 pm
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Here’s an interesting little site I found about Betta Fish. It had some great pictures of these fish and some good care tips as well. People do need to take care of these little guys better than they usually do. They can’t scream their fool heads off like I can when their human is being stingy with the peanuts, bananas or pellets. They have to suffer the foolish humans in silence. From what I’ve heard, they really enjoy the larve of those pesky biting bugs.

Oh, and they also have a blog, I assume that it’s their blog, Betta Fish and You!, where you can ask questions. They seem to know Betta Fish pretty well since they have one that’s four years old. I guess that fish has eaten its share of those nasty biting bug babies. Way to go Red!

Check out their sites if you get a chance!

March 5, 2008

PopCritics Show Recaps and Movie Reviews

My pals Jason and Mike recently combined forces on the new site called PopCritics. Both are great TV show and Movie reviewers. In most cases I find myself agreeing with their assessments of shows although I have to say that I’m not a big Battlestar Galactica fan. Their blog is quite active with several posts per day and very active commenting. Check out their recent show recaps of American Idol and Lost to get a taste of what they do.

I also depend on their insights to save me money before going to the movie theater or renting a DVD. These guys have a lot of great entertainment industry knowledge. 

Check ‘em out when you get a chance!

February 27, 2008

Bayside Container Service

Bayside Container ServiceMoving to a new house always is a difficult proposition, especially if you’ve lived in a location for a while. We had lived at our old home for about 5 years and we had a lot of stuff we no longer needed and did not want to move with us.

To help us deal with this situation, we bought in a dumpster container service, the Bayside Container Service to be exact. Their containers are an attractive looking blue with yellow lettering. And, the containers also have a swinging door for easy loading access for heavy objects like worn out couches or appliances.

We have been very pleased with their service. They communicated well and delivered and picked up on time. They hauled away two twenty yard containers of junk for us. If you reside in the Atlanta, GA metro area I suggest that you take advantage of their services if you are moving, remodeling or just doing some spring cleaning.

As for their web site, check it out. It’s a pretty good example of a business presence web site. Simple, to the point, easy to navigate.

February 20, 2008

Upstart Blogger and Stripped WordPress Theme

Filed under: Favorite Websites — bgmacaw @ 5:23 pm
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After viewing the Learn Email Marketing blog I looked into the theme behind it. The theme is a modified version of the Stripped theme from UpStart Blogger. While the Email Marketing blog has a few SEO enhancements the Stripped theme is a great minimalist theme that looks quite good right out of the box. If you’re looking for a no nonsense, single column, theme this is your ticket.

The Upstart Blogger blog is pretty good too. The current author, Ashley Morgan, has some interesting article that are well worth reading. I highly recommend visiting and spending some time perusing his content. Check it out when you get a chance!

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