Please direct your questions, comments, subscription requests, and site submissions to [email protected]In This Month's Report:
*** Getting Ready For Baby Kleinman
*** Surf For Miles
*** WWW - Woody's Windows Watch
*** Way to go AJ!
*** Put Your Mug on a Mug
*** Banner Swap
*** Book: Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser
*** CD: Rock Spectacle - Bare Naked Ladies
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Sites in this issue:
iBaby
Prolaunch
Woody's Windows Watch
Ask Jeeves
Altavista
Pix
iPrint
BurstMedia
Ask The Makeup Diva
Dressler and the Pulitzer Prize
BLN News
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*** Getting Ready For Baby Kleinman ***
With two months left till little baby Kleinman arrives, we've found ourselves spending a considerable amount of time getting everything ready for our bundle of joy. Who knew that such a little thing would need so much stuff?! One resource that has been incredibly useful to us for our baby "gear up" is iBaby (an online baby superstore). It makes life much easier to be able to get a lot of the baby stuff we need online (now that my wife is in her 8th month, running around town isn't as easy as it used to be). We've been really happy with the site and have managed to take advantage of some great deals.*** Surf for Miles ***
Here's a concept I like: spend some time online and get frequent flyer miles. Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't. ProLaunch will "pay" you frequent flyer miles for spending a couple of minutes a day surfing. Just log in to ProLaunch and get miles for surfing sites. This is simply an amazing service! Initially I signed up with ProLaunch for the free miles, but the truth is, I'd visit the site every day even if I didn't get a thing. The great part about ProLaunch is that it recaptures what surfing is really all about (the way it was before everyone's goal was to keep you at their site). ProLaunch has brought me to some pretty amazing sites, ones that I would never find if I was looking for them, and because they profile your interests when you sign up, I've found their selections to be much more "hit" than "miss". ProLaunch is simply great, and I'm sure you'll see them on my top ten list at the end of the year!*** WWW - Woody's Windows Watch ***
Very rarely do I mention something in The Kleinman Report before it has officially launched. This month I'm making a notable exception for Woody's Windows Watch, the new e-mail newsletter from the creators of Woody's Office Watch and authors of the Mother of All Windows series (Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon). I have learned so much about Microsoft Office from these guys and I consider Woody's Office Watch a MUST read for anyone who uses MS Office. I just can't wait for my first issue!*** Way to go AJ ***
If you haven't been to Altavista in a while, pay them a visit. On the top of the site they now sport the feature of allowing you to search by asking a question. Sound familiar? Well, Altavista actually licenced this service from one of my favorite search sites, Ask Jeeves. This is a great example of a site providing a great service and being rewarded for it! Congratulations, Ask Jeeves, for reminding everyone that people search to find things, not to just hang out at a Portal.*** Put Your Mug on a Mug ***
As Heather and I count down to "D"-Day (her delivery date), I realize that the holidays are quickly approaching. I know for a fact that there is no way that I'm going to drag my VERY pregnant wife into the mass mahem of holiday shopping. So this year I have a plan: get it together early, and do it over the Internet! To help with my plan, I found two sites that are great for getting personalized gifts. Pix and iPrint both allow you to take your photos and put them on everything from coffee mugs, sticky notes, mouse pads, t-shirts, and at Pix even a big cookie (with food dye). If baby Kleinman comes early enough, you can bet that all my relatives will get her little mug on a mug :)*** Banner Swap ***
In last month's issue, I wrote about launching my wife's new site, Ask The Makeup Diva. During the past month we've tried a number of Banner Exchange Networks (where you get your banner served on other people's sites in exchange for having banners on your site). What a mess! In all we gave several Banner Exchange Networks a shot, but none of them hit the mark. The most widely respected of the ones we tested, LinkExchange, was a big disappointment with repeated technical glitches which prevented our banner from displaying for 17 out of the 30 days we ran our test. At best, when our banners did run we had only 7/10th's of a percent of the people who saw our banner actually click on it! Unfortunately, our experience was even worse at the other well know banner exchange network, SmartClicks, which I would strongly advise to avoid.Fortunately, this story does have a happy ending. After wasting a great deal of time with the Banner Exchanges we found a company called BurstMedia that works with small sites to run banners. All in all things have been running great, and hopefully we'll be able to cover some of the costs of running Ask The Makeup Diva with the revenue from the banners!
BurstMedia
Ask The Makeup Diva*** On My Nightstand: Martin Dressler - Steven Millhauser ***
I had great hopes for this 1997 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, but unfortunately, it didn't deliver. The book started out as a great story of young Martin Dressler, who works his way from helping out in his father's cigar store, to being a bellman at the local hotel, to becoming the owner of a very successful chain of New York lunch rooms. Midway through this compelling story, I found myself enthralled with the hope and aspirations of Dressler. Unfortunately this great rags to riches story turns more into a social commentary about the soiling of the American dream than anything else, and eventually goes off the deep end with Martin building a series of theme park hotels that resemble Disney on acid. Well, I guess all books can't be great ones.If you want to buy the Book (despite my review)
Dressler and the Pulitzer Prize*** Spinning in my CD player: Rock Spectacle - Bare Naked Ladies ***
The other week I was at my local used CD store and I found this CD in the bargain bin (it was $2.99 because it didn't have the CD cover). Having been strongly recommended to me by some of my good Canadian friends (who know that Bare Naked Ladies (BNL) have been around since 1994), I picked it up. What fun! If you are looking for a great group that doesn't take itself too seriously, BNL is worth a spin. The nice thing about their music is that you can enjoy it both for the upbeat sound and witty lyrics. I'm still contemplating whether or not to shell out full fare for their newest album, "Stunt".