So you’ve started off your career to become a professional blogger and you’ve read that you should post to DO FOLLOW blogs.  But what exactly is a DO FOLLOW BLOG and just where can you find those golden DO FOLLOW lists?

First off lets talk about what a DO FOLLOW blog is.  It’s pretty simple, actually.  You post a GOOD COMMENT that adds value to the blog you’re posting on and if the blog owner or their henchmen (or women) see fit they approve your comment.  That gives you a one-way link to your site.  If you didn’t know, the more links to your site the more your site becomes an authority in the eyes of the search engine gawds.

What a DO FOLLOW blog IS NOT is a storage place for YOUR CRAPPY COMMENTS, AND SPAM hoping to get a good one way link from an authority site.  Doesn’t work that way.

I do check for spam.  And if something even smells like it, even a bit – I delete it and report it as SPAM which in turn strengthens AKISMET.

Most webmasters or whomever they hire think webmasters and bloggers are stupid, because they post the same comment across 100 different posts.  Ummm…stupid, we will catch on.  Jeez.

SO you want a DO FOLLOW LIST?  Visit http://nicusor.com/do-follow-list/2/ - (Nickoo Shore has accumulated over 300 quality blogs that DO FOLLOW so you benefit from the comment or mention in the blog). I seem to get a lot of referrals from his list, unfortunately not all the comments left are good but that’s OK.  I just mark them as SPAM and delete them… Oh by the way, yes I can also do the same for TRACKBACKS.

Now if you don’t want your site to be banned (and I’ve blocked over 9,000 spam comments – most automagically) then stop the one line comments “that is a good post” or “I agree with what you have said” or “Are you sure that will work” or anything else just as stupid that can be seen through and make the effor to post legitimate comments that spur dicussion and add value to the post and the site and you just might get your comment approved.

For those spammers who came here looking for a DO FOLLOW LIST to spam – most professional bloggers will keep their AKISMET to the max to prevent the rampant comment spam that’s out there.

Technorati Tags: do follow, do follow blog list, do follow list, dofollow, dofollow blog list, dofollow list

I got a real chuckle out of this… for those of you who don’t know, I am living in Canada – Vancouver, BC.  The SECOND best place to live (I’m a native of Edmonton, AB).

Now that Vancouver will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, these are some questions people from all over the world are asking.

Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website.

Obviously the answers are a joke; but the questions were really asked!

Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? ( England )
A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends on how much you’ve been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto – can I follow the Railroad tracks? ( Sweden )
A: Sure, it’s only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada ? ( Sweden )
A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATM’s (cash machines) in Canada ? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto , Vancouver , Edmonton andHalifax ? ( England )
A: No, but you’d better bring a few extra furs for trading purposes.

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing inCanada ? ( USA )
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe Ca-na-da is that big country to your North…oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada ? ( England )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? ( USA )
A: Aus-t ri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary , straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in Canada ? ( Germany )
A: No, WE don’t stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Where can I sell it in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Only at Thanksgiving.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? ( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada , but I forget its name. It’s a kind of big horse with horns. ( USA )
A: It’s called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.

Technorati Tags: emigrating to Canada, living in Canada, travel to Canada, visiting Canada

A few posts ago, I wrote about Apple iPod Touch HD Tablet and iPod Touch 3rd Gen.

So I just read that Microsoft is coming out with the Zune HD.

It looks like a pretty slick player – similar to the iPod Touch.

The Zune HD has a touch screen, built-in Wi-Fi and a Web browser, much like Apple Inc.’s iPod Touch. Zune users can stream and download music from Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace.

Unlike Apple’s device, the Zune HD also has a built-in HD radio receiver.

Zune HD is the company’s third line of the media player, but so far the Zune has attracted only a tiny slice of a digital media player market dominated by iPods.

A 16-gigabyte model will sell for $220, and a 32-gigabyte Zune HD will be $290. A docking station for sending high-definition video from the gadget to an HD television will be sold separately.

You can read the full post at MSNBC Tech & Science Gadgets

There is also a good comparison provided between the two at MSNBC Tech & Science Gadgets Compares iTouch and Zune HD

Now you can bet that Apple doesn’t want to be outdone by Microsoft, so there is a high probability that all the rumors circulating about the iPod Touch HD are probably true – what’s still unknown is if it will sport a microphone and 3 mega-pixel camera as many rumors have stated.

I’ve also read that a iPod Touch tablet are not in the works for this year – but perhaps in 2010.

Have a read – http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=56FEE3ED-1A64-67EA-E40D3BA74E800E9C

Apple is keeping mum on any rumours or speculation about the tablet. It has scheduled a special event on September 9, where the Apple tablet might or might not make an appearance. Some say that we won’t see an Apple tablet this year, but more likely next year.

More on the rumors surrounding the iPod Touch: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/tablet

I for one would love a iPod Touch Tablet – but if the rumors hold true, and it’s priced in the $700 – $900 range then all but the Apple heads and fanboys will be buying it up.

Though it’s merely a guess, Wired.com is predicting an Apple tablet will launch in early 2010 to compete with other companies releasing products at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

So what’s going to happen? Looks like we’ll have to wait until September/October to find out or as far as January 2010 for CES.

Technorati Tags: apple ipod touch hd, apple ipod touch hd tablet, microsoft zune hd

And here I (and the world) thought that Twitter was over its capacity issues.  Guess not…

Maybe too much Twitter spam hitting the network???  Or is it just me???

The main Twitter page is accessible, as is my own account at http://www.twitter.com/oibo – though it was r-e-a-l-l-y slow to be displayed.  Nothing on their status page (http://status.twitter.com).

http://www.twittown.com/blogs/twitter-news/more-twitter-problems has also reported problems.

Other Twitter tidbits:

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/24/237422/twitter-set-to-sell-premium-accounts-to-business-users.htm

Who knows…

UPDATE 08/24/09 @ 08:43am PST — it’s back.  I can go back to sleep, the world really isn’t over.

Technorati Tags: twitspam, twitter, twitter spam

We all know what penis envy is, right… you do, don’t you?  Anyway I’m not qualified enough to help you with that… But do you have Twitter Envy?  You know, the realization that you don’t have tens of thousands of Twitter followers and you’re not really following anyone.

The other day I was on John Chows website — so you’re probably asking just what the heck does Twitter Envy have to do with John Chow and his website?  Well, nothing really.  But there is something.  Just bear with me, OK?

As I was saying I was on John Chows website and I found a post about a new service that he has set-up called Twitter Follower (you can read the post here http://www.johnchow.com/twitter-follower-my-new-twitter-site/ - but first read the rest of this post, OK?).  So I signed-up and signed on and started following all 3,000 or so people currently subscribed to it.

After a while I got tired of hitting or pressing the “follow” button and managed to follow around 800 people and in return about 245 started to follow me.  That initial run boosted my stats to roughly 500 visits yesterday and today it’s still pretty steady at around 350 visits so far.

So I though this is COOL.  But then I hit my mail to read it and there were hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of messages from everyone that I’ve followed including several hundred direct messages.  Now normally I would have just deleted these direct messages BUT some people are using a Twitter validation service to ensure that it’s not a robot that has followed them – so I had to go through about 600 messages.  NOT FUN.

The problem was that this was my PRIMARY e-mail address!  AAAAAGH.  Mistake number one was made.

Here is a small snippet of my inbox…

So what can you do to protect your primary e-mail?

Well first thing that I should have done was use another e-mail address, NOT my primary one.  But I’m the on to blame, sheer laziness prompted me to use my primary e-mail address.  I should have used a “disposable” address from Yahoo or any other e-mail provider (like GMail or Hotmail) – anyways, Yahoo give me the option to create “disposable” e-mail addresses as I subscribe (yes, PAY … don’t ask, well OK you can ask if you really want to) to their premium mail service.

So that was the first thing that I should have done (and what you should do as well).

The other thing I could have done was to turn off a couple of settings inside of Twitter…

TURN those checkboxes OFF otherwise you will get inundated with e-mail.  Very quickly.

…so actually Twitter is not evil, but those options are and the people that send direct text hourly are – yes, I had some people send me a direct text message every few hours.  THEY are evil.

Care to share your Twitter horror stories?  Just comment on this post!  Like what you see, why not RETWEET or TWEET this post!

Technorati Tags: penis envy, twitter, Twitter envy, Twitter Evil

Just a very short post today – there are oodles, and oodles of Twitter logos, badges and buttons out there.  Here is another that offers some very nice looking items… actually it is more like a “clearing house” of Twitter logos, badges and buttons with links to dozens of other sites.

We are talking about 19 pages of ooey, gooey goodness.

Check them out – http://www.twitterlogos.com/

Technorati Tags: free Twitter badges, free Twitter buttons, free Twitter logos