MOMETEK's Guide: Google+

Showing posts with label Google+. Show all posts

Thursday, August 10, 2017

My decision - Most likely my last blog post here

I've decided to migrate away from the bigger social media companies. This includes blogger, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I do NOT like where this is going.

The problem with Google and Facebook, as companies, is that they don't realize who uses their platform. Yes there's a lot of people who criticize certain groups, but there's even more who will stand by free speech. People who's content are seemingly benign. These are the ones you should worry about.

COMPETENT people are for open discussions even if it means letting idiots have their say.
COMPETENT people are for the free market (not corporatism, that is different)
COMPETENT people are patient, but do have their limits, and when those limits are reached, they'll leave in DROVES.

But it's not just the users that will leave, if the economy improves, it will also be the employees. You fired one of them already. Many more will follow. Then you will be stuck with people who have no clue on how to run a business and they will drive Google to the ground.

There are more competent people than the vile, race/sex-baiting hedonistic-type people you see screeching on network television. There are more us than of them.

If Google doesn't realize this soon, I give them a few more years. They're catering to the wrong people. After all, there's a real reason why network television is STILL losing viewers and revenue.

FYI, I'm not shutting down any of my accounts. It is possible that Google will realize what they are doing and change their policies before it's too late. In the meantime, check out http://www.mometek.com. I will start posting articles there after a few weeks.

There's also the problem that all these sites are integrated in logins. I have an Android phone which is pretty much owned by Google. I'm finding it difficult to get family to switch to an alternative. A lot of people will have a difficult time leaving - for the same reason why I have a difficult time leaving. No one else will move.

It was only recently that I got back onto Twitter. It was to improve the likelihood that my posts will be seen. Now, I'm going back to using Twitter only as an aggregator - until I find something else. Gab.ai seems to be okay, but I don't know how well it works with other sites.

Anyway, I'm going to be one of the few that actually announce "the leaving". Most will quietly find something else. No complaints. No sound.

Monday, May 29, 2017

This Scam is a little more Clever than the others

The SVG Facepalm v3.0 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I still sometimes go through my spam to make sure that none of the newsletters I signed up to ended up there.

It was mostly the same old, same old. I'm a winner in various sweepstakes that I never signed up to. I need to verify my credentials on supposedly legit sites that use too many dots in their email server. (I didn't know that Bank of America used angel.ocn.ne.jp email server). Life insurance, auto warranty extensions, and of course various "Final Notice" from a guy named Michael S.

For those of you who are wondering, companies sending you a final notice to anything will use their legitimate email server bearing the company name. Not some randomly generated alphanumeric name and email server.

You hear that "Michael"? You're an idiot. Even if you send it five times. Yeah, you're also "Andrew M." I'm on to you! Seventeen Emails! Take a hint already!

Of course, there were plenty others that were meant for a guy. I do not know any men named "Nancie". If they did, the algorithms that they set would leave male enhancements and messages like these out of my inbox.

It's not mine! I swear!

But then I came across this gem:

This one is odd. It has no pictures and no links. The email was sent via outlook. It was as legitimate as a friend sending a quick message.

However, all of the red flags started to go off. I'm not sure what triggered it at first, so I decided to check the original content. This actually contains all of the header information. It bounced around a few times, but nothing out of the ordinary.

After thinking a few minutes, it dawned on me. It was probably from a reshipping scam. This is a scam where thieves will send you ~~stolen~~ merchandise for you to "inspect", repackage and reship to another destination.

Criminals post job announcements on Internet career sites offering work-at-home positions—sometimes advertised as “merchandising manager” or “package processing assistant.” Duties include receiving packages and mailing them to a foreign address on behalf of a client, using postage-paid mailing labels provided via email. (source).

Some of the scams will deposit money into your account and tell you to send that money to another place. The money they deposit into your account is actually bogus and by the time you figure that out, it's too late. You have to pay that money back, regardless if you have it or not.

This particular scam in an economy that is still weak is the hardest to detect. I was able to detect this scam but only because I've had a few years of sniffing these out (since 1998, yes I'm that old). If you are not paying attention and you are struggling financially, it's easy to be taken.

Everything seemed perfectly legitimate in the beginning. The company had an extensive online presence, there was an employment contract, tax forms, and the offer of a decent income. (source)

Hopefully, as more people are informed about this scam, it becomes more and more difficult for these people to find the ~~unsuspecting masses~~ workers they need. Kind of hard to run a scam if no one is willing to be scammed.

I did get a Nigerian prince scam, but there are so many others, this got pushed down to three pages. Sorry, (in this case) Saphia Farkash, the wife of an embattled Lybian leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, you are no longer relevant.

By the looks of the related articles, however. Looks like people are falling for it still.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

In ear Translator

I was on Minds.com recently and I came across this blog. While there's not much I can add to this, but in the book that I'm currently working on, the characters use an in ear translator when encountering species on other worlds.

Whether Sci-fi or real, this type of technology is awesome.

However, if it's anything like google translate, you may end up with a few snickers from your non-English speaking companion (or visa versa).

Someone actually makes her videos based on these translation flubs:

Perhaps we shouldn't drop our second language electives just yet.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

A Heads up to YouTube

*Sigh*

I was actually going to do some research on something other than YouTube, but apparently, something else has come up.

(warning, video does contain harsh language)

It appears they aren't exactly leaving, but most of their content (their podcast) is now going to be on Twitch. However, this is a start of content providers moving and if you think their subscribers are going to stay and watch YouTube videos for "ad friendly" content - think again.

I'm going to level with you. I'm not subscribed to H3H3 and I'm not interested in his show. However, it's only my opinion, and I can see that he is a favorite among other YouTubers. As a matter of fact, over 3 million disagree with me.

I'd say about 2 million of that will go where H3H3 goes. They will not look back. That's 2 million that won't even look at an Ad and could possibly boycott a product if the company makes them angry enough (I'm looking at you, Pepsi).

So much of taking advantage of a hot market to sell your product.

YouTube (and subsequently Google), do NOT ignore your content creators. They are just as much as customers as the viewers. If they leave, they will take most of their viewers with them and you will kill what made YouTube great in the first place.

Oh, yeah. Bring fan funding back. I suspect it will do better now.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Other ways to make money on YouTube

Journal in my Cafepress Store

I did some research and it took much longer than I thought it would. Then it was the Holidays. Anyone with kids know how busy the holidays can be.

I didn't realize how many more "swag" companies have turned up since I've signed onto Cafepress. I don't have time to test them all, so instead, I'm going to give you the ideas and the resources for you to check out yourself.

Product Placement

This has been going on since before YouTube implemented the partnership program. YouTube does have a policy in regards on how product placements are handled. Be sure to read their policy before using product placement or your version of an ad.

In spite on how long it's been going on, it's not that common, probably because it's much easier to use the automatic ad placement feature than trying to incorporate the product into your video.

There are two ways to get product placement,. One is get so many views that companies are begging you to "review" their product. The other is affiliate programs.

Affiliate placement ads seems to be used more, especially by people who don't normally do reviews or don't have that many subscribers.

I think the latest one I've seen is LootCrate (no, I have no connection or was paid to link to their site). What people would do is address the product in their video one way or another, then place the link in the comments.

A problem with this is that the link only works in a browser. If someone is watching TV, they can't click on the link. To resolve this, some affiliate programs allow you to have a custom link. You put the link in your video and people who want to see the site you advertise can type it up on their phone or PC. Just make sure the link is there long enough for people to remember it.

Just a recommendation: don't sell anything you wouldn't use yourself. I don't have LootCrate as an affiliate because I don't use them. I heard they were good, but we do live in a Motorhome, so space is limited, and I'm not much of a collector of anything. However, if it's your thing, try it out before you sell it.

The best way to be an affiliate is to go to your favorite store or product and scroll to the bottom. Some site do advertise their affiliate programs on their front page, but most do not and instead, have a link at the bottom. Some even bury it more, and you will have to click on "Opportunities" or "Contact us".

"Swag"

There are several sites where you can put your logo, your catchphrase, and your artwork on products to sell.

Some sites allow you to open your store without any upfront costs. People buy your items and the site does all the work. The problem with this is that there's usually a high base cost. You really can't sell your items cheaply - that is, if you want to make any form of profit - because you can sell it less than the base cost.

The journal in the picture above is only $1 more than the base cost (Transparency FTW!). So, when you can get a nice one at Walmart for $7, it kind of makes it difficult to make any profit on journals.

There are some sites that let you buy in bulk and get it for super cheap. However, you may have to have $100 or more on hand and you will have to keep an inventory, with no guarantee that anyone would buy anything.
Like I said in the beginning, I only use Cafepress, so I'm not sure about the others. You may want to consider doing some research before signing on. Here's the list of sites to check out:

Cafepress - One I use. Very easy to use, high base cost, no real work on the store on your part except picking out a template. If you want to customize your store more, it gives you that option.

Zazzle - I think I have an account here, never used it. I don't quite remember much, but it's very similar to Cafepress. Looks like there are plenty of changes since I've seen it last.

Imprint - It has the most variety of product, but you have to keep an inventory. Cheap per-item cost, but you need cash up front.

CustomInk - Just found this one recently. It doesn't appear to have built in store tools. You have to buy in bulk.

Society6 - This is new to me. Judging by the prices of the mugs, there might be a lower base cost than Cafepress

Printful - Another one I recently discovered. Base costs are still relatively high and variety seems low. However, there are some items on there that are not on Cafepress, so it may depend on what you want to sell. It also seems that Printful uses a different form of printing, allowing you to custom design some clothing.

There are more ways to make money, however, what I listed are probably the easiest. Other ideas include, coming up with your own product, writing a guide,calendar or book to sell, or set up a store to sell products you buy yourself.

Hopefully this helps those who are interested in making money on YouTube without using the Ads program. If a lot more people start doing this, it is possible that Google and even the companies that advertise will see that what they are doing now is just screwing themselves over.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Alternatives to YouTube Ads?

YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So now what of those who are really dependent on ad revenue? If you saw my last post, I talked about the possibility of protesting Google's new policy on ad supported videos. I suggested that people drop ad revenues altogether and try to find other avenues of income. If you get enough people to join, Google might rethink it's policy.

The problem is, some people are heavily dependent on YouTube ads and because of the new policy, will no longer be able to support themselves. There are also some people who want to protest, but can't because they rely so much on the revenue generated by these ads. So below are just a few suggestions on trying to make money without YouTube ads.

...

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neVjtb11HVk)

I can understand why someone would stay on YouTube. If you have a lot of subscribers already, it would be difficult to give up what you worked so hard for. So the idea is not to give up YouTube, but to replace your ad revenue income.

First and foremost: If you are heavily dependent on ad revenues, don't give that up immediately. First, try some of the ideas and wait until you make enough with these ideas before you kill the ads. Perhaps you'll luck out and Google will come to their senses and you won't have to worry about losing out at all.

If you are one of the ones loosing revenue already, then don't delay and try some of the sites below.

Patreon: This is an awesome site. I have my own Patreon account for another not at all popular blog so I seriously don't know how much money you can make if you are popular. However, I've seen some Patreon accounts like the one for the Tara Babcock (woman in the above video) and, wow! If you are truly popular, you can make a lot of money.

Site note: Just in case you think it's because of "bewbs", click here.

Downside: Write a fiction that no one really cares about and you won't make any money. Not that I'm dealing with sour grapes or anything.

Paypal.me: This is a great replacement for Fan funding. You can put a simple link like https://www.paypal.me/NNeal in the description of each video.

Just make sure that you mention it somewhere in your video. The description doesn't show up on mobile unless you touch the barely visible down arrow.

Downside: Well, really, there isn't a downside. It doesn't cost anything to have the link on your site or video. There is no incentive to donate like you can give on Patreon, but it does require the least amount of effort to implement.

Minds.com: An idea is to continue to use YouTube to create your videos then share it on Minds. Use Minds.com's "Monetize your Channel" feature.

Downside: You have to sign up to, yet another, social media network. This means, another password, and another thing to keep track of. While there are a lot of people on there already, none of your family or friends will jump on the new social media bandwagon. You'll just have to make new friends. Not that it's a bad thing.

All three of those options can be used at the same time and it doesn't take too much to set up. What's more, they give you another chance to interact with your fans.

There are other options that you can use, however, they will take a little more time to implement. I cover them in my next post.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Can we Stop YouTube "Censorship?"

Icon for censorship (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In order for a company to maintain upkeep of a server, there has to be some form of revenue. The thing is with Google, the reason why you can upload YouTube videos, blog, and interact with others for free, is because of the ads that support them.

The downside? Now that corporations are finally realizing where the real money is, they are now paying for a lot of those freebies. This turned out to be a bad thing, mostly for small time YouTubers.

I thought, No problem, we can use fan funding.

Yeah, about that. It was eliminated for non-live channels. I guess you can still use fan funding for live streams, but what about the people who don't want to record live? To add insult to injury, smaller channels will no longer be able to monetize their videos unless they have at least 10,000 views.

YouTube's explanation is that not enough people were using it and it does look like the case. Ad revenue is much more predictable and convenient. Since fan funding was implemented, I rarely ever saw the button. So it's possible.

However, my internal tin-foil-hat-wearing paranoia whispers, "That's awfully convenient."

I mean, they cancel it just when people would be angry enough to switch over? Are they deliberately trying to kill smaller channels, making it more difficult for someone to get a foothold in the video market?

YouTube could have kept it. I don't think it would have cost them anything to leave that feature be. Then they could have still killed the ad revenues for anyone that had under 10k views.

All that said, I believe we can still have an influence. For those who actually rely heavily on ads for their revenue, it will be the most difficult for you. I will have a post on alternatives in the near future (like the very next post). For the rest of you, here's the plan:

Demonetize your videos. Try to find alternatives instead.

Focus mostly on private creator content. Anything owned by the dinosaur news corps and TV/movie studios should be put on a watch diet.

Actually you should seriously consider not watching them at all, but I know how addictive some of these shows are and a bigger budget does help with the quality (sometimes). Just be wary of shows that try to spoon-feed a belief system to the masses.

Get Adblock or Privacy Badger. Yes, this will block ads. Yes, this may be a problem for a lot of creators who rely heavily on ads. However, this might also convince them on their own to find alternatives.

If your favorite YouTuber does live stream, try to donate something.

Support your favorite YouTuber using their alternative means of funding. Some of these videos require a lot of research which takes a lot of time. You like their content and they would like to spend more time on it to create better content. The best way to do that is to stay home instead of working their 9-5 jobs.
Be sure to share your favorite videos and use other forms of social media to bring views. Google has said that they will bury "unsavory" videos. This means anything does not fit the mainstream narrative will be buried.
Convince other YouTubers to do the same. Sharing this post might be a good start.

If enough revenue stops from their "bread and butter" YouTube might consider other alternatives and realize that the corporations who are trying to regain control, actually have none.

There are alternatives to generating revenue. Unfortunately, as I said before, there are plenty of YouTubers who seriously rely on that funding to pay the bills. My next post will address the other ways to generate revenue without YouTube ads. Hint: You can replace fan funding with a link to paypal.me.
----

YouTubers Speak out:

NO! Youtube Is Not Dying, BUT Will We All Die Soon? Maybe... : Don't rely too much on one form of revenue.

YouTube's Definition of "Advertiser Friendly: Old media making mountain out of molehills

YouTube has shut down Fan Funding: A Traveler who relies heavily on Fan Funding

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Monday, October 20, 2014

Why I Left Facebook and other Ramblings

Facebook logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week, I made an announcement on giving up on Facebook. By Tuesday, I realized that it wasn't necessarily Facebook causing me grief, but the entire internet. I found that I was tired of trying to time my online time on my laptop to when the internet was working, only to find that the internet connection wasn't there.

This would cause a problem with the rest of the day, as I try to do clean and check my laptop at the same time with hopes that the internet finally connected. This is terribly inefficient. Not only I wasn't getting anything useful done, I would only stick reading the news or browsing Facebook This wouldn't require much of an attention span. If I were interrupted by the kids, I wouldn't feel so guilty not finishing the news feed.

As a result, I started to become burned out. I guess I get burned out easily when I do things that are useless. No, keeping up with the family isn't useless, but watching the umpteenth cute and hilarious kitten/dog video is... So is passing on the umpteenth "idiot politician flavor of the day" picture meme, or watching the millionth poor sucker getting the tar beat out of him by some cop or other poor sucker.

To be honest, I didn't do anything useful in the limited time I did spend on the computer. I ended up playing Minecraft for a total of two hours in one week. Possibly less than what the average American spent watching TV.

Actually, I modded it mostly and reminisce on the days when I was capable of creating these mods. When was the last time I programmed anything? I think it was 4 or 5 years ago. Okay, if you don't count web design with a WYSIWYG editor, it's been longer than that.

There is good news. Rumor has it that the RV park changed internet providers with fiber optics. I hadn't asked yet to see for myself but I have noticed the change in speed. The WayPoints still cut out way too frequently, but we are a bit far from the nearest one. I'm not sure what could be interfering with the signal. It could be that our antennas are not strong enough.

We have considered buying our own repeater with a stronger receiver. In the meantime, I formulated a plan. After all, being offline has allowed me to formulate one.

I still WON'T be on Facebook until at least after the elections. Besides not wanting to create more enemies of people I would have otherwise gotten along with, I do have to retain my sanity for my kids - at least what's left of it.
I WILL be blogging on one of three blogs. This one, my family blog, and my new story blog.
I WON'T be deleting my Facebook. I do have a lot of family who want to keep up with what we are doing. So all of my blogs will post to Twitter, than to Facebook. This actually means more family updates as I will have a little more time for it.
I WILL be revamping MOMETEK (but not to the extreme). Since we have been cautious on how much money we spend, it's likely I will delve more into life tips for simplifying than on products.
I WILL eventually be vblogging again. Not sure if I'm going to wait for my new laptop, which I desperately need. My current laptop heats up too easily if I use anything graphic intensive. Since we are replacing the desktop (which is used by everyone else), it's likely I won't be getting one soon.
I WILL be checking in on Google+ comments to my posts, but not that I have a choice. My Blogger blogs are all integrated with Google+ so, if you want to follow me were you are more likely to be noticed, you can follow me there.

Google+ is a grey area. G+ seems to be a little more flexible on what I want to see. People follow me, but I don't have to follow them (there are a lot of people who follow me who don't put up any posts). The posts that matter most do end up in my timeline and I can choose what group I want to see.

For instance, I can choose just to see family, religious, or Tech posts (those are three of the categories I have for my circles).

So there you have it. Why I left Facebook (and most of the internet). It's not permanent, unless the world ends sometime soon.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Changes in the Wind

Image representing Blogger as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

Just a FYI: I'm making some changes to MOMETEK. For one, I will be changing the home page. It's why that at the time of this post, both the "Home" tab and the "Blog" tab go to the same page. I recently purchased "mometek.com" and it will be pointing to a different page. Don't worry, if you have "mometek.blogspot.com" bookmarked, you will still get here.

Blogger doesn't allow different templates for the pages, which is a pain. I had an A-Store, but I couldn't make my template wide enough for it without sacrificing one of the columns.

So there will be a few pages added to blogger, but it won't be hosted on blogger. I haven't set them up yet, but I thought I would give my readers a heads up. When the changes are final, I'll let you know.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

More On CafePress

money (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

Okay, so I've been working on CafePress for the last couple of days. I think I would have been done sooner, but a few unrelated problems came up. Which I've been ranting about on Google plus lately.

CafePress has changed their pricing structure. This was a good change. Instead of having a free version vs a paid version, it's the same store with different ways of paying. The "no upfront costs" version is essentially free if you don't sell anything, but if you do sell something, they make a percentage of your profits.

If you make more than $50 (as what their site states), you might want to go with the monthly payment option, in which you pay a monthly fee instead of a percentage. It's cheaper to pay yearly, of course.

They have added more products making their selection quite large. Besides T-shirts, mugs and maybe a few bags, they've added some Waterbottles, thermoses, baby products and a lot more clothing. I don't know how many products I may be adding, but it's like a kid in a candy shop: exciting and overwhelming.

Their new pricing structure had brought down the base price on a lot of items, but to be competitive, some items you only can make pennies on. The Journal I have set up is only marked up about 50 cents to remain competitive, but the KOR Water bottle, at least on CafePress, competitive means I make a little more.

This is probably the easiest way to make money online. At least, there's no upfront costs. So you can still start a blog, and sell items without having any cash onhand... I think.

I have yet to sell anything. Next post: Attracting customers (or something like that).

Related articles

Friday, March 7, 2014

MOMĒTEK's Guide Google+ Page

I'm working on separating MOMĒTEK's Guide from Nancie's Web as I'm trying to keep "Nancie's Web" as a family site. Even then, I plan on eventually phasing that out to "This (not so) Boring Life". So here it is:

www.google.com/+MometekBlogspotdotcom

I'll be adding more gadget reviews, awesome links, and products that make your life more streamlined. After all, in this modern world, being inefficient is not a good idea.

I've also added a community for mothers who want to share their own tech posts, ideas, and ways they have made their life more "streamlined" so that they can spend more time with their family.

If you are interested: https://plus.google.com/communities/109608549399198474562

The community is geared towards mothers who want to use tech to make their lives easier -so that they can spend more time with their family. However, anyone can join.

Friday, February 28, 2014

The Most EVIL hing you can do on Your Website

Artistic representation of the Devil. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I didn't want to rant about it, but after the "umpteenth" time trying to use right click (this time to check my spelling errors), and could not, I had to say something.

Disabling right-click is EVIL!

First, it does NOT prevent copying, I can easy bypass that by using the toolbar and getting the info via the "view source" there. I can STILL download images, and copy text that way. It's not that hard. Then there are some browsers that now disable the ability to disable right click anyway.

And then there are add-ons like Evernote. To test this point, I use my Evernote and copied the ENTIRE page of someone who disabled right click. Photos, text, everything. All I have to do is copy the photo and paste it into a photo editor and Viola! I now have the photo you thought you have blocked people from copying.

Second, it makes potential readers very, very angry. And you won't like it when your readers get angry. Why? Because there's actually legitimate reasons why people use right click... Like checking for spelling errors.

To be quite honest, I'm not as good of a speller as I used to be. I got lazy thanks to spell-check. Although, usually it's the weird spellings like conscience and subconscious. I usually mistakenly spell subconscious like conscience with a "sub" (subconscience), which is wrong. That's where spell-check is supposed to come in, until someone disables right-click.

Then there's the search features. If you talk about string theory, which I'm not exactly familiar with, I will highlight "string theory", use right-click, then click on "search in Google" or "Wikipedia" depending on what my search box is set to in Firefox. In a disabled right-click blog, I will first click on the "close tab" button, and still do a Google search because now I'm curios, but it's not likely I'll be participating in your blog anytime soon.

Another complaint of something I haven't used, but I guess some browsers use "gestures" and I suspect this has a lot to do with the IPad. I've heard of people complaining in other blogs about how they can't use gestures on pages that disabled right click. Essentially making your site useless.

And finally, it won't kill you if people copy sections of your text. I mean people who use it for future reference, like putting into Evernote, or to entice THEIR readers to click on a link to YOUR site. Isn't that what you would want?

FYI, click on brainyquote.com, highlight a favorite quote, copy, then paste it into a text editor and see what happens. When you paste it into a text editor, it also pastes a reference link. I happen to LOVE this. It saves me time on trying to remember where I got that information and I have considered using it on my own site.

Another link on this subject:
http://www.sitepoint.com/dont-disable-right-click/