Planning for the unthinkable

***ADVERTISEMENT***

---

One cannot help but think about it, especially if one has children. That thing is death. Specifically what happens to those to whom one has a financial responsibility after they are gone. There are a myriad of solutions. Some better than others. For instance, planning on winning the lottery so that one's family will be taken care of in the event of anything horrendous happening, while enticing and, if brought to fruition, quite lucrative, not the best of solutions.

Most decent employers these days offer some type of life insurance with their benefit package. This is usually a nifty benefit, and sometimes less expensive than other types of life insurance. The problem arises when one leaves their current employer. When that happens, the life insurance ceases. Hopefully the new employer will also offer free or discount life insurance. If not, that two or three percent increase in pay just may not be worth it after all.

With the way things are these days, where people change jobs every couple of years and very few people actually work for one company for 20 years and get the gold watch and what-not, it is not the best idea to have one's life insurance tied to an employer. One's best bet is to get life insurance that is independent of any employer. It may cost a little more, but in the long run, it is much more reliable and stable.

New virus hiding as IE7 download

I'm just trying to spread the word here - I don't do this much, but I believe this to be very important

Trojan masquerades as IE 7 downloads by ZDNet's Ryan Naraine -- Spammers are using fake Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2) downloads to lure Windows users into downloading a nasty backdoor Trojan. The fake downloads are part of a massive spam run that includes an official-looking graphic (see image below) linked to Web sites that auto-launch an executable named "ie7.exe." A copy of this spam that landed in my [...]

Technorati Tags: virus, IE7, trojan, zdnet

New blog directory - sign up early!

***ADVERTISEMENT***

---

It looks like the Google PageRank system has updated the rankings of pages and blogs. As stated here, my other blog, the one no one has visited (as far as I can tell by the analytics tools) used to have a PageRank of two. Now it has a PageRank of zero. I don't understand, but I have to accept it.

In the quest to up page ranks and get a better PageRank, Alexa score (more on that in another post) and Technorati Rank, I believe it is advisable to get the blogs out there as many places and as oftem as possible. That is where HighFivez.com comes into play. They are yet another blog listing service. One can submit their blogs, then people on the site can rank them. Giving a positive review of blogs and posts (a "high five") or a negative review (a "pound").

Mayhaps I'm a bit out of touch with the lingo of the kids these days, because while I understand what a high five is, I have no idea what a pound is. Signing up at HighFivez.com is completely painless. The worst part was waiting the three or four minutes it took for their email checker to email me a message with a verification link to click on. From then on out, adding blog was simple and straight to the point.

The site appears to be new, there aren't a ton of people signed up yet, so if one hurries, they could get a good position where their blog(s) won't get lost in the shuffle of millions of other (but far less intersting) blogs than yours!

Welcome aboard

I want to take a moment here to welcome Jim from I'm forty-what??!! as the newest member of the Topeka Bloggers blogroll.



If you are a blogger in Topeka, let me know so I can add you to the blogroll. No requirement to put the roll on your site - but it would be nice of you to do so and give us all a little more exposure :)



Follow this link for more information.



Thanks for stopping buy - and again, welcome to Jim!





Technorati Tags: blog, blogroll, Topeka, Kansas

Still hanging in there

I know, I know, it has been a while since I posted anything here. Let alone anything helpful. I will make every effort not to let this blog slip between the cracks of a rather hectic life.



Something I am currently researching is the Alexa rating. I'm not certain how that works, but PayPerPost is now using them in addition to the Google PageRank rating. I have been to some pages with Alexa ranks of...say...15 and others with Alexa ranks of 0 and still more with ranks in the millions. As of yet I do not know whether a larger number is better or not.



Stay tuned...and thanks for sticking around and reading this ( and don't be afraid to click and advertiser or two ).









Technorati Tags: Alexa, Google PageRank, PayPerPost

Saving on the family vacation

***ADVERTISEMENT***

---

As everyone probably knows by now, I am all about making the coinage. That is why this blog exists after all. It is documenting my attempts to use the internet, and blogging in particular, to generate a little more income.

But part of having more money is also saving money. One must be able to save what they earn, or they have nothing to show for it. Vacations used to be difficult and expensive. With the advent of the Internet, and the World Wide Web specifically, booking Hotel Reservations has become much easier, faster and more penny-pincher friendly.

Where ever you are going, what ever you are doing when ever you are going there and doing it, you can find the cheapest rates anywhere for hotel, air travel, car rental and just about anything else online. You basically become your own travel agent.

For instance, last summer the 5/8s and I went to Cancun, Mexico for several days while the kids were at Boy Scout summer camp. We booked out vacation at an all-inclusive resort online (through a company I won't use again because I just didn't like the way some things were done).

Next time, I will more than likely use Hotel Reservations. After looking around their site, and pricing a cost for a full week in Cancun, it was just a few dollars more than what we paid for only four days with the other online site. It did take a little time to hunt down Cancun in their extensive list of cities. It wasn't in the initial drop down box of destinations, and I had to click the "addition destinations" link to get to it.

All in all, the Hotel Reservations site is easy to navigate, and loads, changes pages and displays the information you want quicker han the other online travel sites I have visited. And their gallery of pictures of different hotels and resorts seems nearly endless. you can really get a feel for what the place you are looking at will look like in real life.

sponsored by:


Technorati Tags: Cancun, Vacation, Hotel Reservations, Mexico

Google PageRank confusion

I simply cannot understand the whole Google PageRank deal. Seriously, it makes no sense to me. I can't get rhyme or reason from it. I...okay, out of cliches now, but still I do not understand it.



Here, I have my main blog at Bigsibling.com, I have this blog and I have another blog, which is a personal blog, talking about family and life and what not at My Home Town.



The oldest of these blogs is Bigsibling.com, followed by My Home Town, and finally this one. The most posts by far, is the Bigsibling.com blog. This blog has the highest traffic (thanks guys, I love you all visiting...really, I do). And the blog with the least posts and the least traffic (zero in the last month according to Google Analytics) is My Home Town.



But, My Home Town has a Google PageRank of 2/10, where Bigsibling.com and this one - which both have more traffic, links and posts - have a Google PageRank of 0/10.



I just can't figure it out. Maybe when I die I can ask the Great I AM and He can tell me.



As always, thanks for visiting (really, I do appreciate you all taking a look around - feel free to drop a comment).





Technorati Tags: Google PageRank