ROFLOCTOPUS

PayPerPost.com, according to Wikipedia, is “…a website which helps content creators such as bloggers, videographers, podcasters and photographers find advertisers willing to sponsor specific content.”

Like I said in my first real post, I put up this website to test out the service (as well as to write stuff, which I am really starting to enjoy, actually). It’s been a couple of days since the site has been up, and I figured that since I have some stuff up I should try to register it with PayPerPost (PPP). Here’s what I think so far:

PayPerPost Layout

PayPerPost has a very clean site with a layout that you would expect from a Web 2.0 site: bright colors, rounded corners, and attractive fonts. With a subtle off-white background-color (#eee), you don’t destroy your eyes like you might on my work in progress (but I haven’t Photoshopped it up yet!!). This, to me is very important, because you definitely have the potential to be on this website for a decent amount of time looking up opportunities.

The blogger dashboard keeps you well informed about your vitals. It shows how many posts you’ve taken, how many you have been approved/rejected for, how much you have been paid, how much you will be paid, and they even let you donate to charity and link to your Myspace! The rest of the page shows you some opportunities, like some of the highest paying ones, new opportunities, and featured opportunities (which I assume requires a fee to be paid by the advertiser). The really cool thing about this page, though, is at the bottom. Here is where they show you the top bloggers in the PayPerPost network and how much they have made. It’s really amazing and motivating to see that people have made upwards of $700-$800 a month - that’s some serious scratch for doing what you do for fun. The layout of this page is fairly intuitive, but I don’t like how they place advertisements on it.

Process

To register with PPP it is 100% free and it’s the standard login stuff initially. It’s super easy. To get going, though, you need to register your blog by filling out a fairly un-intrusive, one page form. It asks you things like

• What’s your blog’s title?
• What’s your blog’s url?
• What kind of blog is it? (i.e. wordpress, blogger, xanga)
• Describe your blog
• How would you categorize your blog?

Basically, it’s just all the essentials that they need to know, and then it goes through a review process. I just did this today, so I will be sure to make another post about how things went.

Wrap Up

I originally heard about PPP from a commercial on the radio. I seem to recall it being a decent commercial, so I checked it out. Back then the offers were only as high as a couple of dollars, but since the site has REALLY taken off; everyone wants to advertise their product or get opinions from these bloggers and so the offers have gone up substantially. It really is a great idea.

Another aspect of the site I like is their customer service - only they call themselves “Customer Love.” That’s a hell of a marketing tool (because I feel warm and fuzzy when I get messages from them).

The site has a great layout, a great concept, and you can make money by blogging. What more could you want?

Note: This review does not give away any ending or ruin the movie for you in any way.

Plot
Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon (Tremors (1990), Footloose (1984)) and Aisha Tyler (the chick from TalkSoup that wasn’t very funny) is a delightful romp about gangs, family values, and of course revenge. Nick Hume (Bacon) is a successful executive VP that leads the Jones-lifestyle with his stereotypical Jones-lifestyle family: the moderately attractive wife who was probably hot in her hay-day, the all-star athlete son, and the younger son that doesn’t seem to live up to his older brother.

Kevin Bacon brings his oldest son to his hockey game in the city (which of course they win) and on the way home he stops for gas in the shadiest gas station imaginable in the seediest part of the city because his gas light went on. Avoiding all common sense, the son goes in to buy a slush and when a gang enters, they cashier and son get killed (cashier via shotgun, son via machette). And so, long story short, Kevin Bacon starts a war with the gang and everyone lives happily ever after (or do they?).

My Opinion

When I first walked into the theater, there were two other people in it (which was a bummer because I wanted a private showing). This immediately made me think the movie would suck since nobody wanted to see it. Granted it’s been out for a bit, but still. People eventually trickled in, but they eventually trickled out about 30 minutes into the movie. Damn kids…

Kevin Bacon is usually the epitome of suck (except Tremors or as I like to call them, Graboids…), but he wasn’t bad in this film. His teeth kinda weird me out, though - there’s something not right with them. Also, John Goodman was in the movie as an arms dealer/drug ring boss and he was pretty funny.

It was very easy to predict what would happen in the movie (for the most part), but it was still fun to watch and even though it’s Kevin Bacon, you can’t help but to feel bad for the guy.

Overall

If you’re bored and have five bucks to kill go see this movie. Nothing spectacular, but it wasn’t boring. If you go see it at The Oaks, it’s in DLP, which was sweet, but I’m looking forward to Hitman.

This has been the summer of sequels and third installments in trilogies in the movie theaters, and as such, it seems that we liked it so much that that it’s running into our politics - Bush: The Sequel will be ending in ‘08 but there could potentially be Clinton: The Sequel.

Someone out there was clever and either decided to help Hillary’s campaign, or kick it down a notch - I’m not sure which and I really don’t care. Bottom line is this is hilarious, and a great gift for that History professor of yours.

That’s right! For only 20 big ones you too can have Hillary Clinton completely destroy your nuts (symbolism? maybe…) ! I’m just glad that they didn’t make a Hillary gumball machine (think about it)…

If you want to buy one of these visit http://hillarynutcracker.com.

Personally, however, I still think Walken is going to win in ‘08.

Blind Date

So I’m 99% sure that we can all agree that she is shallow if she discriminates against his profession. He’s an honest hard working guy that enjoys what he does. What else could you want?

Now that HelloWorld is out of the way I can write my first real post. This site is intended to be both an experiment as well as a medium for me to learn.

I’m in my senior year of college pursuing my “BS in CS.” Super lame. All I ever wanted to do was make websites, but I have no regrets. Most of the stuff I’ve learned I’ve found interesting and it will (and has!) helped me make better websites (although I still consider it a hobby). No I didn’t make this website - it was a delightful one-click install from DreamHost (they offer great plans and if nothing else they have an entertaining blog and newsletters).

Anyhoo, this site is also kind of an experiment. I’ve heard a lot about Pay Per Post so I decided I’d like to give it a try. Because I’m broke. And I have bills. Lots of them. But what I am planning on doing is reviewing websites that want reviews on PPP. This way I’ll be able to learn more about website design, color schemes, layouts, etc. Straight up homey.

And if you’re reading this and thinking “Hey! The title of that post was from my away message the other day!” then yes. You are 100% correct.

OK so to pay homage to every new project ever done that involves computers, you hafta have a HelloWorld of some sort. Here it is.

Word.