Whilst blog hopping today, I got to know of a blog review contest where the best review of Financial Independence will get to win GBP50 or USD100. Well, I think this is a good chance for bloggers to take a shot at the prize.

Well, I shall not review the posts because I have read through them and although I am not interested in financial issues (I am female, you know?) I believe that many people would find value in such posts.

What I would like to point out is that I like the clean simplistic layout of the blog but it is suffering from a little color clash. For one, the green is either too light or too striking on my screen and I have tried to view it with Internet Explorer and FireFox. The slight contrast of the green and the stark white background makes it difficult to read.

However, I like the header of the blog. It looks familiar, like I have seen it on some financial websites before but I am sure this is original but the message spells $$$ to me, somehow, and so I feel that the header is spot on for a blog with this theme.

On with the color clash…. the Google Adsense and MyBlogLog are in dark blue which does not match the overall color scheme of the blog. The same applies for the dark green for the Blog Catalog viewers.

There are two FeedBurner buttons on the site, one at the sidebar and one at the bottom. The bottom one should be taken off. PayPal’s Make a Donation button should be moved to the sidebar as well.

Also, there is a link to “financial-independence.net” at the footer of the blog which leads to Page Not Found.

So there you have it, my review of Financial Independence which could make the blog more pleasing to the eye. Wish me luck!

I would blog about my monkeys!

Like any proud mother who could forever blog about her children, I do not have children so I would love the opportunity to blog about my monkeys. If I were to get paid to blog for 24 hours non-stop, I would do it but if it’s free like the Blogathon, even if it was for charity, then better to save the Blogosphere from stories of my monkeys, not all of them are happy, joyful stories, if you have read An Anonymous Journal.

Right now, although I CAN absolutely blog about my monkeys as I like since I do have my own blog like other mummy bloggers who love blogging about their children and publishing their photos all over the blog, I think I would rather spare my readers pictures of my monkeys!

But then I have been pondering for a long time that I would love to create a comic strip of my two monkeys but the project never took of the ground. I so would love to set up a website featuring comic strips of my two monkeys like those that I read in my Sunday comics like Blondie and Peanuts.

Unfortunately, I don’t even know how to draw to save my life and no artist I know love my monkeys as much as I do to be committed to the project, perhaps unless that are commissioned to do so? >.< "

I stumbled upon this blog called MoreMerchant.com, an almost two year old blog, while I was blog hopping. As you know, I have been trying to raise the page rank of my blogs so I do take any tips that are given out generously on blogs like these to heart.

MoreMerchant.com guides us to Save More Money and Make More Money. Some of the topics covered include how to make some money online. Well, we have heard it is possible but not many people will disclose the secret of making big money on the internet. MoreMerchant.com has such useful and informative articles now and then, like how to make money from affiliate marketing or finding success with Text Link Ads. If you look at my sidebar, I too have just implemented Text Link Ads after reading the post on MoreMerchant.com and hope to find a little success with it.

MoreMerchant author, Jake, is very experienced in earning money online since 1997 and I find his articles very insightful. He also lets us know how to effectively link bait and he will also do it if we send him something with the URL of our site that he could write about on his blog! Besides that, he guides us on how to be a better blogger. Boy, do I need that knowledge!

While these are all ways that could help us earn more money online, Jake says that earning alone is not enough as it must go hand in hand with saving money which he also covers extensively in Save Money category.

I have gained some knowledge on MoreMerchant so far and look forward to more useful posts that I could apply on my own blogging and online money making ventures!

Just when I thought I am all blogged out, I wake up to news that some crazy dude is giving away $2500 cold hard cash. People who really read my blogs would know that I am always short of money, not because I do not manage my money well, but that’s the problem of my parents that I have to bear. So …

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

Firstly, the contest is set to end on 20th August. Year is not stated so I hope it is 2007. Currency is not stated either. Hopefully it’s US$ and not Yen or Rupiah. Anyway, may the person with the most luck win!

P/S: 24th August, 2007: The link has been updated to point to another site after this contest has been found to be crap.

I came across this linky love game where Venomous Kate invites everyone to bite her twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Actually, I got to know of it from the beginning but was too lazy to read in detail how to play it. In fact, I am not even sure now! Hahaha!

I think what we have to do every Tuesday and Friday is to write a post linking to Venomous Kate’s Bite Me! post and then trackback to her post. That’s it! That’s it? I hope I got it down to pat!

I think this is the best linky love game I have come across because Kate says we could edit our old Bite Me post with a new Bite Me permalink and then send a trackback to her. So you need not even write a new post twice a week.

Plus, Kate’s blog has a Google Page Rank of 5. I don’t know if you noticed but bloggers with PR5 are usually not generous in giving out links so this is a very good chance to get two linkbacks to your blog twice a week without much effort.

Even if you do not want to Bite Kate, you can leave a comment on her blog and it will be counted as a backlink to your own blog as well since she has implemented DoFollow. w00t!

I was talking to a friend today that I have been blogging for a long time now but have never networked. Most of my family members and friends do not even know of my blogs.

However, these couple of months, I have started to network and build backlinks by leaving comments on other blogs. I do read blogs but I am what people term as a lurker. Previously, it was not easy to make me leave a comment unless the post is so compelling that I feel the need to make my thoughts known.

Since I started networking, I have been acquainted with quite a few foreign bloggers and do drop by some blogs on a daily basis and leave comments as well because it is one thing to read but another to show support to the blogger by leaving an appropriate comment. Bloggers feed on comment count too, that was that I found out.

Recently, I got to know of a BenSpark contest which I find very interesting so I gave it four buzzes. Unexpectedly, Drew, the author of BenSpark, gave my blogs and my posts linkbacks. I was so surprised and touched. Like I said, I did not expect it and I did not even write my buzzes hoping for anything in return but Drew so kindly provided me with all the links. Thank you.

Bloggers are an amazing group of people!

I read in a forum that Blogathon is just around the corner. Last year, when I just started to go into blogging, I came to know of Blogathon for the first time. I was impressed that people would and could set aside twenty four long hours to blog. No doubt, it is in the name of charity but at the expense of sleep? I am not sure if it is worth it but from the reception, many people believe in the power of blogging.

This year, Blogathon starts on July 28, 6:00am Pacific time. I don’t know how many Malaysians will participate. Last year, I got to know of a few teams of people who took turns blogging on one blog. While that is commendable, I am more in awe of people who are going solo.

If it were me, I would run out of ideas, if I do not collapse from fatigue first! I think I am one of those who would rather contribute cash or kind to charitable bodies that I believe in rather than blog and wait for sponsors.

What about you? Do you plan to participate in Blogathon this year or some time in the future? While I would love to try it out, I don’t think I am committed enough to do it for 24 hours straight so I think this isn’t something I will ever do!