10MinuteEmail…Worth it?

Unethical?

A new service has just launched which allows you to get an email address that only lasts 10 minutes.  See 10minutemail.com.

That’s right…10 minutes.

Essentially what this means is that when you get to those pages on a website which require you to provide an email address and a name before getting the content on the subsequent page, you can simply grab a 10minutemail.com address, sign up for the item, get it from your email, and do nothing further.  The email address will simply “self-destruct”.

I know that there are some folks out there cheering this on because they get so tired of being “required” to give out personal information before receiving either their free gift, complimentary offer, whatever you’re seeking at the time.

However, the people providing this offer to you as a subscriber have gone to some lengths to get that information to you.  The “price” that you pay is your email address.  Would you rather be charged for the product?  I guess it all depends on what your email address is worth to you.

I honestly believe that this is a very short-lived but noteworthy item.  Many websites already prevent certain email addresses from being used such as a hotmail.com or ayahoo.com address and this will simply be another one that is blocked by savvy website owners.

It’s obvious that if you choose to use an email address such as this, you are doing nothing more than stealing.  You obviously have no intention of being a trustworthy person.

A little harsh?  I don’t think so.  Since many online marketers offer a double-opt in, which essentially means that you have to confirm your email address before receiving any additional email, and you are given the opportunity to unsubscribe at any time, there is no reason at all to not use a real, working email address.

Obviously if you have visited the website they offer something of value to you so it would make sense that you would want to receive other valuable items and information as well.

If you don’t, it’s simply stealing.

What do you think?

- K

Free Excel Spreadsheets & More…

Ok, ok so to say “Excel” spreadsheet is a little misleading…but let’s face it, most people associate spreadsheet programs with Microsoft Excel.  This was the only way I could think of to tell you about a free on-line spreadsheet program from who else but…

…Google.

As always Google outdoes itself by offering us helpful programs at absolutely no cost.  But what’s so great about this particular program is that it’s on-line.  You don’t have to download it to your personal computer – you can use it right there online and not have to worry about (*knocking on wood*) your computer crashing.

The Pluses and Minuses:

•  Because it’s on-line, you can share it with others and collaborate on-line;
• You don’t have to download the program to your computer;
• You can import .xls files;
• Some formatting from Excel does not import;
• You can’t do charts and databases like you can in Excel;
• If you typically use your current spreadsheet program for some basic tasks, then Google spreadsheets will work well for you.  However…
• …if you use your current spreadsheet program for serious number crunching, graphics or charts.

So, if you’d like to take a look at the program, head on over to spreadsheets.google.com and sign up

If you use it, drop me a line and let me know.  I’m curious to see if it fits your needs or if you have any issues with it at all.

Until next time,

Kristine

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I wanted to thank all of my readers a very happy Thanksgiving and tell you about a Thanksgiving day Checklist.

Perfect for the busy parent, it contains the following:

• The Thanksgiving Planning Guide with organizing and planning tips.
  
• A Complete Thanksgiving Menu with detailed recipes.
  
• A Shopping List with everything you need to prepare the recipes of the menu.
  
• A second Shopping List of non-perishable items you can buy ahead of time.
  
• Our original “To-Do” List to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.

All the best to you and your family this holiday season.

Kristine

Bright New Concept Can Earn You Some Spending Cash!!

The following is an advertisement for a brand new website.

It’s rare that I post twice in a day but I just had to share this with you because it is quite a new and interesting concept.

A brand new site called ReviewMe has been created to help those of us who don’t have huge advertising budgets but are looking for word-of-mouth buzz about our product or service.

Advertising, especially if you’ve just started a brand new site is not only time-consuming, it can also be very expensive.

If you’ve been advertising for some time, you know that banner advertsing as well as other forms of advertising, just simply doesn’t work like it used to and that having a link to your website from another relevant site is very important!

Creating a buzz about your product or service is of vital importance. ReviewMe helps you do just that! Sign up for free and start people talking about your product or service within as little as 2 days!

If you’re willing to write a review about another site you can also earn yourself some extra spending cash!

A sidenote here, even though this sounds like an easy way to make some money, be sure that the website you’re reviewing is a high-quality website and one that you would be proud to link to. Remember that you are providing a service to your website visitors!

Your friend and partner in business,

Kristine

Beware the Silver Tounge…

I receive many newsletters on a daily basis as I’m sure you probably do too.

Some of them really surprise me though.  Not with the new and impressive information that they provide but with the sheer ignorance of what is published!

Today, I received some information about search engine optimization which is of course, right up my alley, so I thought I’d read this particular article.  This person had also been “featured” by two very major publications (which in my opinion is either completely false or the publications just didn’t know better – my guess is the latter).

But as I read this article, I was in total and complete shock!

Not only did this person recommend creating doorway pages – which are pages created strictly for the search engines and not for the site visitors, but they also suggested that when you finished with these pages, you submit these pages to the search engines!

Not only is submitting your pages to search engines completely unnecessary, but this person was recommending that you submit your “doorway” pages to them.

What probably upset me the most was that this person was being touted as an “authority” on the subject of search engine optimization.

Never, ever create your website or webpages for a search engine.  Always create them for the site visitor.  And you don’t have to submit your website to the search engines.  All you need to do is find another website who is already listed in Google link to you.  Your link will get followed naturally and your site will then get searched and thus indexed.

All the best,

Kristine

P.S.  Don’t forget, we’re moving our blog to the Be-a-WAHM.com website beginning on December 1st, 2006.  Don’t forget to visit us there!

P.P.S.  In a couple of weeks, the search engine optimization guide will be released.  This however, is not your typical SEO guide.  This one actually shows you how to do it and gives you checklists and charts to help you along the way!