I'm not 100% sure how I ended up at this site, but now I've found it, I just have to share! It is probably the most bizarre (not to mention specific!) idea behind a website that I have ever seen!

I can't believe someone registered the domain name, www.midgetswhoworkattarget.com, let alone develop a site around the concept! Go check it out for yourself, Little people who work at Target.

That reminds me... I wonder if Target sell any decent wood blinds?

The recent announcement from PayPerPost (PPP), the big name in regarding their new service, PPP Direct, really turns up the heat on their major competition, ReviewMe. As any publisher that has used the ReviewMe service knows, only 50% of what an advertiser pays ends up in your pocket. Maybe it's just me, but taking a 50% cut doesn't seem all that fair when it is really the site owner that is doing all the hard work.

Essentially PPP Direct functions in a very similar way to ReviewMe, in that advertisers can directly hire good bloggers to write about their products or services. The key difference, and arguably most important one if your key consideration is making money, is that with PPP Direct, the site owner takes away 90% of the total fee. You don't have to be a world class mathematician to figure out which program offers the best deal!

It will be interesting to see how ReviewMe react to this announcement, and in particular, interesting to see what effect it has on their fees. What I'm also curious to see is how PPP Direct will be received by the "big name" sites. One things for sure, this announcement has the potential to drag a great deal of business from ReviewMe and will shake up the world of blog marketing.

Well, anyone that has seen the movie 300 knows that it looks pretty good. But upon reflection, you have also probably arrived at the conclusion that the story line could be summarised quite easily on the back of a postage stamp. With this in mind, my global correspondent Bean Bag Boy has forwarded me an abridged version of the 300 script. I post it here for your reading pleasure. » Read the rest of the entry..

Unbeknown to most, there is an interesting and sordid little saga playing out in the "blog" world. In what could turn out to be the web version of "The Crying Game" Kumiko Suzuki, of Kumiko's Cash Quest and long time 'commenter' at johnchow.com, has had her integrity questioned, by another blogger, Ronald Daniar. Ronald has alleged that Kumiko has been passing herself off as someone she (or he??) is not. Ronald has suggested that the photos Kumiko has posted with the inference that they were of her, could all be fakes. Ronald seems to have called Kumiko out on this one, yet as of this second, Kumiko does not appear to have returned fire. Based on some of the comments on Paula Neal Mooney's 'Bloggers Salary" post, he's not the only one that has doubts. Here's an example from what sounds like a frustrated Mr Anonymous:

For the love of god, size down that Kumiko picture! It's bad enough having that guy who blogs as a Japanese girl on your list, and he certainly doesn't deserve such a giant picture!

Source: Paula Neal Mooney's Blog

Ronald has since reported that the Kumiko pictures have now disappeared from 'her' site, following his questioning. All very interesting. Whether Kumiko is the real deal or not remains to be seen, I guess the world awaits 'her' reply.

All this has raised an interesting question for me though. Would Swollen Pickles be more popular if I pretended to be hot?? Well luckily for me 'hotness' isn't an issue, as you can see from a recent profile photo taken of me last week.

If Kumiko does turn out to be a fake, you can guarantee that there'll be a whole lot of blogging nerds crying into their hot pockets!

In a late night of 'action script' and Flash development I was looking for a distraction. Random surfing led me to "Subvert and Profit". What is "Subvert and Profit". Well, I'm not really in a position to say...

Remember, the first rule of Subvert and Profit... there is no Subvert and Profit... the second rule of Subvert and Profit... there is no Subvert and Profit.

Now, back to the action script...

I think I'm developing an unhealthy fascination with buttons. I'm not talking about the ones on my jeans either, I'm meaning those small little icons things all different sites offer for you to place on you blog. These little buttons display a ranking as to your popularity, compared to all the other blogs that are displaying the button. Whether these sites/buttons actually contribute to bringing in more traffic or not is a bit of a mystery. I can't say I've ever noticed a dramatic increase, since I've joined a couple of sites, and have a few buttons in my side bar.

I'm thinking of replacing all my current buttons with this one from FuelMyBlog. Why? Simply because I think it looks better. What can I say, I'm a complex guy. Don't look at me like that! It's not like I'm into Ephedra or anything!

I am proud to announce that Swollen Pickles has now jumped aboard the "I Follow" movement. What is the "I Follow" movement all about? Well, I best let someone better equipped respond to that one:

Almost all blog platforms by default are set up so that a “dead end” piece of code is inserted wherever there is a link in a comment, so that search engines will not “count” the link as they are crawling the internet. This was originally designed to help stop comment spam, but it doesn’t work. What it does is remove some of the incentive for your readers contribute to your site by commenting on your posts.What can you do about it? Turn off “nofollow”. Show your commenters that you appreciate them. Spread the link love.

No the "I Follow" thing doesn't mean your opening the flood gates for comment SPAM. You can still leave all your moderation systems in place. All it does is reward those people who take the time to leave a genuine comment.

How can I get involved? Go download your "I Follow" badge and get aboard. If your running WordPress, download this plugin, and it does the hard work for you. If your on Blogger and you want to join the revolution, instructions on how to remove the no follow code from your blog can be found here.

Random link of the day: Villas in Italy