A discussion of earning with Affiliate Programs, SEO, Wordpress Blogging and General Motivational Ideas for Internet Publishers

The one thing I really love about the internet is that every so often I discover a website so completely interesting and highly addictive that I feel like telling every about it. Well, it’s happened again, I’ve found another site that I just can’t get enough of and I’m feeling the need to share my enthusiasm with all of my loyal readers here on this Affiliate Best Programs blog. The site I’m sharing with you today is called Spock.com and no, it’s not a Trekkie fansite. Although the name brings certain science fiction connotations to mind, rest assured there are no Vulcans or Starship Captains on Spock, bit it is very futuristic and is a wonderful example of the positive use of technology. Additionally, if you’re expecting my post today to be about affiliate programs or making money on the internet, I hate to burst your bubble but Spock is not an affiliate program and you don’t earn money from using it. Instead, Spock is a “People Search Engine” and possibly one of the most intelligent search sites I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. If you’re into historcal people, famous people, celebrities, sports stars, business giants or just about anybody who has achieved some modicum of success, chances are that a plethora of pertinent information can be found about them in a Spock search.

For example, here’s a sample of a Spock search for the infamous Matt Cutts of Google fame…

Edited due to spyware

When you search Spock for a particular person, you get a whole lot more than just the generic information usually found at sites like Wikipedia or other simplistic sources, you get pictures of your search, video, audio clips and almost anything else that is tied to a particular persons online (and offline) identity. The results returned Spock are far more comprehensive than a Google and Spock is completely free of spam and junk results which makes it perfect for research projects or just poking around and looking up people for fun.

One word of warning, this site can become highly addictive because each listing is accompanied by “tags” that group people into easily accessible groups. Once you start searching and researching you’ll find yourself clicking on the tags to see what other people are grouped with the person you’re looking for. In certain respects, Spock is similar to the site LinkedIn except Spock simply blows the afformentioned site away due to the incredible depth and complexity of the data and presentation of the data. Spock uses a very clean interface that without advertising or spam cluttering up the results and the Web 2.0 design is both appealing and enhances the end user experience.

Spock is also a “social site” that fosters community by allowing registered Users to vote up or down a tag if they feel it is relevant or irrelevant to a particular search result. This “community” feature essentially helps deliver Spock’s end users a far more accurate and thorough search experience due to the fact that real people who are interested in enhancing the site are participating in enhancing the information returned by searches.

Regardless if you’re a casual user just curious about your favorite celebrities or if you’re a more comples user interested in doing advanced research on a particular person’s history, I highly recommend giving Spock a try and you will see why I’m so impressed with it that I felt the need to share it with you, my loyal readers.

Spock People Search Engine is still in Beta mode so all enthusiasts are encouraged to get involved now and help make Spock one of the greatest search tools on the internet. I’m personally interested in watching the growth of this site over the next few months and into the future because there has never been anything I’ve ever seen on the internet that compares to what the creators of this site are attempting to accomplish. In my humble opinion, this project deserves loyal supporters because of the originality and the overall magnitude of encompassing the scope of human accomplishment and putting it at the fingertips of the average interenet user. Best of all, Spock is completely free of charge.

         

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I just caught this on Reddit a few minutes ago… Did you see what Google’s stock price ended up at today ?? The data is here, but I took a screenshot for posterity sake. :-)

Actually, this is the third time Google’s stock has closed at 666 in the last few months. I think somebody’s trying to tell us something !!!!

         

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I’ve been seeing quite a few news media reports over the last few days that claim it’s not politically correct to wish people a “Happy Thanksgiving”. Well, let’s forget the political correctness and dispose of all the collusion and get down to the fundamentals and let me wish each and every one of you out there reading this blog a “Happy Thanksgiving”.

To each and everyone, here’s to world peace, family, friends and much happiness to all.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Dave

         

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The internet can be a very strange place sometimes. Internet Meme’s are definitely a conjuration of the internt age combined with traditional urban legend and folklore. While people once told stories around the campfire, now people spread these hoaxes and rumours through the internet via email, websites and message forums. Many times these pranks or hoaxes can sweep the internet like wildfire. The examples I’ll highlight here are probably two of the most widely spread internet memes that have sprung up in recent years. While internet memes can be amusing and fun, there is often a sadder side to the story.

From Wikipedia (which is an Internet Meme in it’s own)

Many Internet Meme’s are quite amusing and can be considered the very core of Viral Marketing on the internet. However, many internet meme’s are tragic at the very core of their existence. Take for example the following two examples:

LooterGuy
The actual photo that has become the internet meme of LooterGuy is a picture of an African American male looting some Heineken after Hurricane Katrina. When or where the original photograph emerged is a mystery but LooterGuy has turned up in many a discussion forum and there is even a website devoted to photochopped images of him LooterGuy : An American Hurricane Hero. The tragedy of this meme is that some poor guy who was grabbing himself some free brews after surving one of the United States most significant natural disasters of the century probably doesn’t even know that he’s an unintentional internet celebrity. Hell, the poor guy probably doesn’t even own a computer or have access to the internet. The photo at the right is a parody of “LooterGuy” with San Francisco Giant’s slugger and home run king Barry Bonds. I must admit the LooterGuy site has some very creative photochops and amazingly it’s allegedly seen over 20 million hits. The creator of the site has even interviewed on the radio. Those two facts alone exhibit the power of internet meme’s to attract an unparallelled audience.

Brian Peppers
Brian Peppers has become another internet meme that is tragic by it’s very nature, yet the person is a real person, however the stories, urban legends and photochopped images of the real Brian Peppers have been circulating the internet for several years now. So much in fact, it seems new Brian Peppers images are turning up in the strangest of places. The real truth is that Brian Peppers is/was a patient in a nursing home who was allegedly charged with fondling a nurse and was put on trial in the state of Ohio for molestation. The urban legend grew and the story eventually turned into a hoax that he had been incarcerated for raping and murdering two teenage girls. Brian Peppers has become a favorite target of internet hoaxes, pranks and has become a source of viral marketing for bands, artists and general counterculture related websites. Although many of the pictures are pretty funny, the sad fact remains that this is a real person who is disabled and is definitely unaware of his celebrity status on the internet’s shadowy realms. Photochops of Brian Peppers have even turned up on the infamous Ebaum’s world website.

Here’s a few Brian Peppers pages:

• Brian Peppers @ FunnyStuffBlog
• Uncensored:Brian Peppers - Wikitruth
• The Brian Peppers Collection

While internet memes can be amusing and often time addicting, it is important to remember that more often than not there is a real person who is being made the butt end of a viral marketing joke. The real truth is that avoiding these memes is like trying to drive by an accident on the highway without looking.

That being said, here’s a few of my photochops….

Brian Peppers being awarded the Medal of Honor from George Bush

Brian Peppers Chilling with Prince Charles

Brian Peppers Replaces Joe Torre as NY Yankees Manager
(notice LooterGuy in the stands)

         

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