Craigslist is Not Free. Advertise here until we find another Free Classified Ad Service.

Tags

advertising, craigslist, online, service, website

We can no longer turn to the list of Craig for small business ads. Every business struggles sooner or later, but if your entire reputation is built around being the free alternative, you better count on losing all of your customers when you start charging. I just hope Craigslist is ready to build from the ground up again.

In response to this terrible news, I encourage thee to feel free to advertise your products/services in the comment section. When I find, or make, an alternative that is both free to post and regional (in my case that would be the US) I will share it here and everywhere. Maybe even on Craigslist. That would be worth paying for.

Yes I already know major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles have always been charged to post on Craigslist for things like job ads, but why didn’t someone in the company come up with the idea to make sponsored posts instead of charging every person who posts? Greed maybe? Desperation perhaps? Experimentation? If it is, was it worth it?

To wrap things up, remember that everything changes in a blink of an eye and there’s no way to go back; only forward. Everyone’s favorite online classified ad website is now on its way to an early grave unless they realize their mistakes fast. Hopefully there are already online alternatives for everyone’s region. Please share what you find.

$5 might not seem like much to ask for a post to a website, but self-employed people and small businesses post multiple times per month, some daily. The performance of these classified ads is extremely low in comparison to the costs when you take into consideration the number of ads your ad will compete with, the limitations of how much is shown on a person’s screen, the divided retention rates for each subcategory and uniformity of each ad. If we wanted to pay for an ad, we would go to Google, Facebook, Twitter or an ad network.

Here’s an actual idea, Craigslist. Let us post once per day for free on any account. Charge us to upgrade our limited free membership to a $5 membership to remove the limitations. Then maybe try the sponsored ad thing I mentioned earlier. Whatever it takes to keep your reputation.

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Spiritual Lessons for Those with Open Minds

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blogging, health, hypocrisy, mental, mind, minded, open, openness, spirit, spirituality

You cannot accept anything new into your life with a closed mind. This applies spiritually, mentally, health-wise, socially, sexually, professionally, family-wise and otherwise.

An open mind is not usually foolish. Being open means weighing the benefits of every decision.

Most importantly, do not conflict with your values. Hypocrisy is a common hindrance to progress.

 

With Love,

Josh

 

P.S. Despite my warnings about abandoning TTSP, something within keeps bringing me back again and again. I intend to only spread positive messages.

Goodbye, Internet

Tags

congress, fcc, information, internet, law, laws, online, politics, privacy, usa

The congressmen who claim to have been representing the people have voted to end online privacy laws (52 to 49).

While most of us feel that we have nothing to hide, I feel that any information, despite how positive intentions are, can and will be used against one. I will be weaning off of the internet entirely. I cannot recommend that anyone does the same, but I will not suggest the opposite.

It baffles me that a majority of the world still trusts strangers to represent their best interests when no proof has ever been given that it is to our benefit.

Whatever doesn’t eventually get removed will be here for you all to remember me by.

 

With love,

The Creator of TTSP

How to Get 1000 Followers Overnight

Tags

1000, a, blogging, blogs, fast, followers, get, how to, immediately, overnight, thousand, to follow, you

Not everyone can be Ken Bone, but if Ken Bone can be Ken Bone, then you too can be yourself. If you aren’t familiar with Ken Bone, he’s an average US voter who went from three followers to millions in a week.

How did he do it? All he really did was ask a couple questions on television. He offered himself exactly as he was. His words, genuine and his attire, appropriate. It was as if he were hired to be there at that exact moment.

Other notable overnight successes have included shows like True Detective or videos like Too Many Cooks and Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared, but there’s something all of these things have in common.

Hard work. Ken Bone didn’t have a goal in mind when he went on to ask Trump and Clinton his questions.

All of these winners had ambition and truth to their character. Even if you use all of the tricks and tips in every book, you still might not end up where you wish you were because you’re focusing on the results.

Emailing, engaging commentary, adjusting SEO keywords, contests, giveaways, content marketing, Guerilla marketing, or having a ton of friends is going to be helpful but nothing will guarantee anything.

If you want guaranteed followers, you can purchase followers. I do not endorse these kinds of services but they exist for a reason. Why not buy your enemy followers and then frame them? 

Well, maybe there are some other malicious ways you could get a thousand or more followers very quickly.

Some benign ways that have helped other people are features, events, television programs, local assistance, pro-bono work and building anticipation.

 

Time Warner Cable Review

Tags

blog, blogging, blogs, internet, review

There are two kinds of TWC customers.

Those who are happy with their service, and those who have had only problems.

There was a time when I was the former. Unfortunately, ever since my last move, the internet service is apparently unfixable.

Time Warner Cable has sent out technicians twice, and the problems haven’t changed at all. When I’m on the phone or talking to TWC customer service, the internet decides to display no network connectivity issues.

My issue is that I get disconnected every five minutes. It isn’t a virus. It happens on every device.

It isn’t my router. The modem still disconnects without it. The wiring in my home has been replaced recently.

For some reason, it just isn’t doing me any justice. Try watching a netflix movie when it has to buffer every 5 minutes from disconnecting. 

Try downloading anything above 25mb before it disconnects and corrupts the file. 

After discussions with their tech support, numerous attempts were made to fix the problem. Nothing worked. I even attempted to seek for an alternative solution in forums. Again, nothing worked.

I give TWC customer support a 4/5 because even though they didn’t fix the problem, they answered very promptly. I wasn’t put on hold for long. They always call back. Some of the people are very genuine in helping.

The company’s internet service gets a 5/10 because only half of my experiences have been good with Time Warner.

To the two technicians who came over to help, 10/10 because they were very professional and friendly.

Maybe cell phone internet is enough to get by on… 

All I want for Christmas is consistency. 

What to Do When You’re Out of Ideas

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block, blog, blogging, creativity, do, ideas, improve, motivation, niche, of, out, what, when, writer's

Congratulations. You’re not alone in the world. Maybe you’re boring, and maybe you’re just too tired to come up with anything original, but regardless, you need something to write about.

My solution to this problem is to go through my blog, reread from the top, and write about something from the past.

It’s easier than coming up with something on the spot, creates consistency in your writing, encourages further blog exploration and gives you something to build on.

There’s a lot of people who would call that lazy, but what job isn’t repetitive? Being lazy would be to do nothing instead of finding a solution.

There are plenty of places and sources of inspiration to derive topics from, but this is more of a quick solution to remember. When you belong to a niche, you’ll find yourself using this remedy often.

5 Creative Ways to Gain Traffic Online

Tags

blog, blogging, creative, five, gain, life, online, to, traffic, ways

This list applies to blogs, websites, web shows, and anything that falls into those categories.

5. Clothing

How much do people pay for advertising? Upwards of thousands? Well, they work so hard when you could achieve the same results with less than a considerable fraction of their budget. Spend between $30-$100 per customized outfit and you have yourself a breathing, walking advertisement. One that will create conversation, be seen, have monitored results and that has alternative utility. This is something most small businesses appear to overlook.

4. Filming / Writing / Creating for a tangible group

You can be certain someone will share a video, blog, article, or program if they were involved. Collaborations with any school, organization, club, city, town, clique, or other group will be self-advertising. People love being part of it all. They feel special, and you only spent time.

3. Feature someone already popular, and even people who are new and rising

These genres of blogs gain traction easily. People love to see who and what is in the now. This requires approval and support from the person you’re featuring. Imagine the rush of fans and potential fans who happen to discover your website as a result. This is sometimes an event that needs more preparation than other creative pursuits.

2. Business cards with utility other than information

These are awesome when done correctly. A locksmith once created one with a lock-picking set built in. You might want to make something like a dotted cut-out design, or something really colorful. Maybe create a little game field on your business card so people keep using the card. Too many business cards end up in the trash despite their expensive-looking designs.

1. Hold a live event

This sounds very expensive and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. Live events don’t have to be planned to be fun, but a for the event to be memorable, it has to be fun. If you’re a food blog, hold a bake sale or something food related. If you’re a music blog, start a battle of the bands or something music related. If you’re like me and you have a variety of content, you often have to choose one genre at a time, or find enough like-minded individuals to hold an event.

Why Many People Don’t Read Blogs

Tags

articles, blogging, blogs, don't, internet, many, online, people, read, why

You may be wondering why someone wouldn’t read a blog because you have a blog, or you are someone who doesn’t read blogs often.

There are thousands of subjective reasons, but the following are some of the most likely.

1. People have short attention spans:

This accounts mostly for Americans. There is a general apathy installed into youth that causes a lot of people to stop reading altogether. Their attention is less than that of a fish. If you want to get these people’s attention, you have to have an eye-catching design and an incentive that’s worth their time.

2. There’s too many blogs:

Every blog gets lost in its earliest stages before it’s discovered by a niche group. Some people write blogs as personal journals, and these blogs are based entirely on entertainment value. The number of blogs in each niche is too damn high. This pushes the already famous blogs into higher rankings because people are reluctant to look through a list.

3. People don’t share blogs like they share media content:

Most of what you see on Twitter, Facebook, Google plus and Reddit is pictures and videos. The articles I have seen on social networks are typically from the same few high level blogs. Every blog post has to include some form of visual to be shared, so it seems.

4. Blogging is hard:

Blogging doesn’t end at the publish button. Each post requires individual detail in order to be even slightly discoverable. Tags, categories, sitemaps, meta links, labeling images and videos, and submitting info to search engines aren’t even the end of it.

5. Blogs are too detailed:

Unfortunately, in this day and age, people have less time than ever, so they want to get right to the point. So, take away all the information that isn’t essential to what you need to portray.

Don’t take my word for it. Share and find out what others think.

“If you have a ratio over 33% post history to a site you will be banned.”

Tags

banning, reddit

Reddit is banning spammers in a manner that now defines spammer even more loosely than before.

The ruling by a Reddit moderator has been posted for three months now.

This new law enforces a stricter community expectation for members. Self-promotion is already looked down upon by users, but now it’s even causing accounts to be banned.

If you’re going to use Reddit as a marketing tool, be sure to link to more than one website, and reciprocate to the community.

Reddit is filled with people who feel at home in their niche, so try not to disturb the peace.

Just watch your posting history. Less than 1/3 of all posts can link to the same website.